Emery and Willow
by fredricklynn
Summary: The day started out normal for the citizens of Selphia. As usual, Frey tended to her vegetable garden in the cool spring time sun. Everything was quite relaxing, the perfect day for just taking things easy and spending time with loved ones. It was nostalgic, to say the least.
1. Pilot

**Please do not skip this. I have not been writing for ages, and this is just a test. I have probably six or seven chapters already completed, but I'm nervous about uploading them. I originally started this story to entertain myself, and also one of my best friends. We have always been huge fans of Harvest Moon Games and RF. We have even written a few stories together, but that was about four years ago. Anyways, please review, but don't be too brutal. Like I said, it's been a long time since I've written anything and I'm extremely nervous about this. Disclaimer: I don't own any rune factory or harvest moon games or their characters, etc. Thank you for taking your time to read!**

Prologue: An Unexpected Arrival

The day started out normal for the citizens of Selphia. As usual, Frey tended to her vegetable garden in the cool spring time sun. Everything was quite relaxing, the perfect day for just taking things easy and spending time with loved ones. It was nostalgic, to say the least. The cherry blossom flowers were falling all around, reminding her of the first season she spent here in the Selphia. It was on a day much like this when she fell off an air ship and began her new life. Sure, she was sad about lsing her memories, but why dwell on the things you cannot change? This was the time to make new memories. To meet new people, to fall in love, to start a family even…and that was exactly what she was planning on doing.

It was about noon when Frey realized it was time to meet up with her boyfriend Dylas, one of the many amazing people she had met over the past year. He was gruff at first, but nonetheless, Frey ever so persistently broke through his tough guy act and found out he was actually an amazing guy. They hadn't been dating long, but something told Frey that this was the one. This was the guy to be with. He was sweet and protective and everything she could ever hope for. Even if this was to be their third date, she knew deep in her heart that it was meant to be. Though, for a long time, she was afraid of making commitment like this. That is why no one but the two lovers actually knew about the relationship. As much as Frey knew or _like to think_ she knew that Dylas was the one, she still wanted to be sure it was the real deal.

"Are you ready?" a gruff voice called out to her, forcing Frey out of her thoughts of the past. She turned around with a bright smile on her face,

"More than ready!" She giggled and started lightly jogging away, "I'll race you there!"

"H-hey! That is SO not fair!" Dylas welcomed the challenge. He loved a good race now, even if it meant racing his beloved girlfriend. Before meeting Frey, Dylas was always a little gruff. He didn't trust many people, nor did he like them. But the princess wormed her way to his heart nonetheless.

Upon entering the Selphia Dragon Lake area, Dylas quickly grabbed his girlfriend and carried her bridal style over to one of the cherry blossom trees next to the sparkling lake. They were going to have a small picnic that the master chef Porcoline helped him prepare, and everything was going to be perfect and serene and wonderful. Though, we all know that peace doesn't last long. Not when it is needed the most.

The peace was broken first when a certain pea-sized dwarf stumbled into the lake area. He had on that stupid, lopsided grin that Dylas hated with a passion. Ever since Dylas had woken up, he had never gotten along with Doug. They were always competing for Frey's affection, even after Dylas had won her over. Though, there wasn't any way Doug would know that, since Frey wanted to keep things on the down low for the time being. So, for now, Dylas had to pretend that he was only friends with Frey and nothing more. It made his stomach twist and turn.

"What are you two doing?" Doug teased, sauntering over to sit next to Frey. Dylas sat up straighter and looked away frustrated. It was no secret that Doug had a crush on Frey, but she was as clueless as ever. He always brought her flowers and took her out to eat, but she thought it to be nothing more than friendly gestures. Every time Dylas tried to bring the subject up, Frey would just dismiss it. They're just friends, she would insist. Just. Friends.

"Oh, hey there!" The clueless girl smiled up at him, "We were just going to look for you. There is something we need to tell you."

"Well tell it then!" Doug grinned and poked her in the side. Perhaps he knew what was to come next, but did not want to quite admit it yet. He wanted Frey to be his just for a little longer. She was the only one who truly understood him in this world. Even after the truth about his actions came about, she still defended him and treated him like a friend. For that, he was thankful for.

"Well, for a few weeks now-" Frey started and was then interrupted by a blood curdling scream. The three quickly stood up in a panic. It was quite rare for something so abrupt to happen in Selphia. There haven't been any monster attacks for months, and it couldn't possibly be the Sechs. Their ruler has recently been defeated by Frey, and their empire was currently rebuilding itself. So what could it be? Could a traveler be tormenting one of the citizens? Frey doubted it. It was very rare to have a traveler like that. She scanned the sky horizon and that's when she saw it. Somehow, a giant monster gate had taken for above the castle. It was a deep purple color with flashes of sea green. If the possibility of a high level monster appearing out of it, it would have been one of the most beautiful sights ever seen.

"Holy mother of all that is good…" Frey whispered and glanced at the stunned men beside her. "Dylas, I need you to hurry and gather all of the citizens of Selphia. Something huge is about to happen." She commanded, sliding into princess mode, "Doug, I need you for back up." And with that, she was off to save the town.

Most of the people had already begun to gather in the square, swords drawn with shields protected by magic. Kiel never handled stressful situations well. His sister, who was an expert, was already preparing the citizens for the worst. Ever since his parents died, he had wished he could be stronger. Stronger for his sister, and then stronger for Frey. He would never admit it to anyone, but the girl who fell from the sky secretly already held a special place in his heart. "**_IT'S COMING!_**" he heard someone shout, and as he cleared his thoughts he looked up to see the tip of a strange monster emerging from the beautiful greenish-purple gate.

**_"EVERYONE GET READY!"_**Kiel's older sister, Forte, commanded. Frey, Dylas, and Doug pushed to the front, swords drawn, to stand next to her. How Kiel longed to be the one Frey stood next to, protecting the town. "What the **_hell_**is **_that_**?!" She screamed through gritted teeth. The monster began to emerge, blocking out the sun. Everything turned dark, and Kiel clenched his fists, preparing himself for the worst. The most he could do was provide some magical backup. He was good at stuff like that.

**_"HOLD YOUR FIRE!"_**Frey suddenly shouted. **_"THAT'S NOT A MONSTER! IT'S AN AIRSHIP!" _** And sure enough when Kiel looked back up to the sky, an amazingly crafted airship was making its way through the gate. _I've never seen those markings before…not from anywhere in this realm,_ he thought to himself. A strange dark figure began to appear over the side of the ship. It was short, but slender, and looked as though it was a person.

"I-it's a girl!" He gasped as she suddenly started to come into focus. She was wearing strange clothing, a skirt of some sort and a sweater way too big for her. No one from around this area dressed like that. Kiel couldn't quite make out her face, but he did see her cross her self- like he'd read about some people of faith doing.

"FREY! LOOK OUT!" Kiel bellowed. Doug looked up and saw that the girl had swan dove off the ledge of the air ship and was falling towards his beloved Frey. He sprung into action and pushed her out of the way, breaking the fall of the mysterious girl rather than Frey. In the mean time, the full length of the airship emerged from the gate, along with several gigantic fireballs, causing the back end to explode. There was a collective gasp and then a sigh of relief as they realized somehow it was steering away from town and heading sound to Yokmire forest.

When Doug finally opened his eyes, he was confronted face-to-face by whoever had disrupted the peaceful Selphia. Her big, sea blue eyes were brimming with tears of joy. She grabbed him by the shoulders,

"Y-you caught me! You saved my **_life_**_!" _She hugged him tightly and began to shake. "My life is forever in debt to you," she cried even harder, released him from the bear hug, and then kissed him on the mouth. Doug had been kissed before, sure. But he was defiantly not expecting this. This was outrageous! The girl hardly knew him and she was already kissing him. She also put the lives of everyone, including Frey, in danger. That was _not_ okay.

"W-what the hell, lady?!" He shouted at her, "Who are you?" the young woman stood up and took a slight step forward,

"Make another move and I will cut your throat." Frey growled, unsheathing her sword. Doug scrambled to his feet and went to stand protectively next to her. He was always so loyal.

"Where is my sister?" the girl asked, attempting to diffuse the situation. She looked around the plaza for a bit, before realizing whoever she was looking for did not follow suit.

"You were the only one to fall from the sky…" Frey glared at her,

"Oh no." The girl whispered, causing everyone to look up at the sky just as she was. The airship finally crashed in the middle of Yokmire forest, causing a loud, explosion. "I-I have to go get her.." the girl once again took a step forward, swayed, and collapsed to the ground in pain.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Doug asked frantically, forgetting all about the danger. Forgetting all about how many lives were at stake. He was only focusing on the fact that there was some person who clearly needed medical attention.

"No..." She coughed up blood and tried to stand again, "My sister is. I have to get to her," as she pulled herself up, she swayed and almost fell over again. Doug caught her before she fell, and helped her stand up. He was confused by whatever nonsense she was rambling, but he could not just stand by and let her be.

"You can't leave like that, are you crazy?!" He shouted at her, but she just attempted to push him aside, "You're bleeding internally or somet-FREEYYY" He held onto the girl and supported her while searching frantically for Frey. Apparently, while Doug was dealing with the crazy chic, she was trying to get the townspeople to return home and to leave the plaza so she and Forte could handle the situation.

"We need to bring her to the clinic, hurry." Frey sheathed her sword and helped Doug carry the now unconscious girl to the clinic. Things were about to get a little more interesting in Selphia.


	2. To Save a Life

**I'm trying to pace myself with uploading, but it's hard when you already have six chapters staring you in the face. They've all been read, but I have to edit them all and fix things before I upload them. I hope you have all enjoyed the story so far! Uhm, the first chapter is the only chapter written in third person. All of the proceeding chapters are in first person, but it's in different character's point of view. I'm experimenting with different types of writing, so I hope it doesn't bother anyone too much.**

To Save a Life

"Doug, are you awake yet? You should go visit that girl you saved yesterday" I awoke to hearing Granny Blossom calling out to me from the kitchen. I sighed and rolled over in bed. There is no way I'm going to visit that crazy chick. She didn't even know me, and she kissed me…and she fell from the sky…and I have no idea who she is…and…she…well I guess she **_was_**kind of cute. But that's not the point. She was totally out of line. Also, it's not like she's my problem or anything. I have better things to do. Like…hanging out with Frey, for instance. That sounded much more pleasing than visiting some random girl at the clinic.

"I really don't feel like it." I groaned, getting up for the day. My red hair was messy with bed head, and I had a little drool on my pajamas. Faintly, I remember having a strange dream. It wasn't a bad dream, nor was it a very good dream. Frey was in it, that's all I could remember. Her sweet, sea green eyes staring into my soul…

"Don't be like that…" Granny laughed and patted me on the shoulder. I sighed as I grabbed some rice from the counter and sat down. "You should bring her some flowers." She looked at me. Obviously, she had witnessed the embarrassing kiss that stupid girl gave me after breaking her fall. I blushed, not because I thought she was cute or anything…well, maybe, but that's beside the point. Granny Blossom always knew just how to embarrass me.

"W-why would I do that?!" I snapped and she just smile that knowing smile of hers.

"You of all people should know how it feels to come to a new town." She sighed and looked at the clock. "Besides, I bet she's scared, did you _see_ those _fireballs_? I bet she's being chased, or maybe she barely escaped from her town being attacked." That did it for me. Granny always knew what to say to make me do something. Sometimes it got on my nerves, like this, but most of the time I didn't mind. Though, the thought of that girl being chased didn't sit well with me. If she's in danger, there's no doubt that it will follow her here.

"Whatever." I grumbled as I walked downstairs and out the door. _What does she know, anyways? That girl's story couldn't possibly compare to mine. My entire clan was killed and I'm the only survivor… She fell on top of me when she decided to jump ship. I came here because I had nowhere else to go. She probably came here because she's some kind of vigilante. We're not alike at all._

Approaching the clinic, you could hear horrible, horrible screaming and crying. I knew at once it had to be that girl. _I wonder what's going on…_There was a loud crash and even more yelling. _This can't be good._ I sighed and pushed through the door. I don't know what I was quite expecting, but I saw Nancy rushing about the front entrance of the room in a panic.

"Ah, Doug, are you hear to pick up Blossom's medicine?" the nurse, Nancy, asked me out of breath.

"No…I actually came to check on…" I trailed off as I heard even more, painful sounding screams.

"Her name is Emery." Nancy smiled knowingly at me, causing me to blush. "Did you want another kiss?" she teased. I shook my head and went into the patient's room without her giving me the okay. _One kiss and everyone thinks I'm in love or something. As if. My heart belongs to, and will always belong to, Frey: the beautiful princess of Selphia._

"There is…nothing…you can do…Dr. Jones." Emery, the girl, panted. "Until you get my sister…or until she dies…I will be in pain." She winced. He body was coated in a sheen of sweat, and her most of her clothes were removed to where she was only in a tank top and a skirt, exposing her extremely scarred arms and legs. _Whoa. Where did she get __**those**__?_

"What happens if she…dies?" Jones looked up from his clipboard nervously while I kind of just hung back a bit. _I really don't like where this conversation is going. It will make me think of this girl as a human being, no doubt, and I'm not in the mood to do that. I really want to hate on her, but I can't shake the feeling that maybe she's one of the good guys._

"I'll die." She whispered before she arched her back in another blood curdling scream._ Damn, are you possessed or something?_ "**_JUST GET SOMEONE TO GO GET HER ALREADY_**" Jones took in a deep breath. There is no doubt that this is the worst case he's ever dealt with in Selphia. In all the time I've been here, I've never really seen or heard of anyone being extremely sick. Well, except for Kiel's mother and then Kiel is also not the healthiest, but still…this is different somehow. More…_dramatic._

"Hey…" I mumbled entering further into the room.

"Ah, hello, Doug. I'll leave you alone with…her." Jones sighed in relief. _Damn it. He must be pretty thankful for an excuse to leave. I guess I would be too if I had to deal with this crazy chick…_

"You're the one who save me…" Emery managed to say. She breathed as though it was a huge burden to even do that. Her skin had also paled since yesterday when we first met, I noticed. It wasn't as if she was super tan yesterday, but she wasn't a sheet of paper either. Now, she just looks sick. Sick and in pain. Trust me, I would know. I've had my own fair share of injuries. They're not fun.

"I wouldn't say I saved you…more like broke your fall." I laughed nervously. Emery swiped her short, sandy blond hair from her eyes and looked at me. Her eyes were crystal clear blue, not as dark as I had thought yesterday. Interesting.

"Please, if you could…do one more thing…for me." She whimpered pathetically, "If you get my sister, I will do anything you want. I can take you anywhere you want to go. Please, just save my sister." _What kind of crazy talk is this? Take me anywhere I want? I don't understand. Is she delirious? Or just plain crazy?_

"I'm…not sure if I can do that for you." I looked away, it's gotten harder and harder for me to say no to people lately, but I really didn't want to get mixed up in all this nonsense.

"Our souls are bound together…I can feel all the pain she feels and vice versa." Emery rolled onto her back and looked up at the ceiling. "She was supposed to close the gate and jump after me. Something bad must have happened. My baby sister…" I could hear the cries lumped up in her throat. She was trying so hard not to cry out again. _Well. This is awkward._ Some minutes passed in silence. I was lost in my thoughts, and I could only imagine what this Emery girl was thinking. _She must be worried about her sister…being stuck in a new town- being in pain and also not knowing who anyone is. Feeling helpless. I need to stop this thinking…I'm about to talk myself into helping her!_

"Before I get your sister, you have to tell me what you were doing on that airship anyways." I finally sighed in defeat. _Pushover…_

"It's a long story, but I will tell you half of it." She took a long painful breath; "My sister and I are being chased by a very powerful tyrant. He killed our entire family just before we escaped and we've been on the run ever since." Pausing, she tried to sit up a bit, but failed due to the amount of pain she was in…or her sister is in. "We were staying in this town for maybe a month when we were ambushed…they all sacrificed themselves…for us. Even still, our airship got bombed on our way out and caught fire." She looked at me with those piercing blue eyes of her, wet and red around the edges from crying, "I have to get her, before he finds us and kills us and everyone here too." I looked away again. _I was not expecting this…I didn't sign up for this. All I wanted was to spend the day with Frey and then this crap happens. I swear I have the worst luck in the world._

I stood up and put the flowers I brought her in a vase next to the bed and started walk away. _So her entire family is dead too…Her sister must be the only one left. I don't even have that…_ "I'll be back," I called out to her over my shoulder as I exited the clinic. _Pretty girls can make a man do anything these days. A little crying and whimpering and BAM- they got their guy by the balls._

Frey, Dylas, and Forte were all standing at the entrance to Selphia when I finally arrived to the plaza. "We have to get to that airship." Frey said, trying to be brave for her friends. "If that girl is still alive, we have to save her. If not, we still need to check out the ship to see where these people came from."

"That's okay, Frey." I sighed, walking up to them. "I already know what's going on." I was hoping maybe they'd all let me handle this thing, but they didn't back down. Dylas glared at me a bit, and Frey smiled brightly at me when she saw me. We were best friends, after all.

"How's that?" Dylas asked forcefully. He's always so gruff to everyone. I've tried to be friends with him before, but he won't have it. Plus he's trying to court Frey, the love of my life.

"I went to see Emery." I rolled my eyes at the stupid horse-face.

"So you have a crush on her now, instead of Frey?" He grinned evilly and my face turned a bit red in anger. _He has no idea what he's talking about!_

"N-no…I mean…I don't like either." I stared a hole at the ground, unable to even look at Frey.

"Uh, okay…" Frey mumbled and cleared her throat, "Let's just get going to the ship. It doesn't matter what happened right now." And with that we were on our way to Yokmire forest. Fighting monsters really comes naturally to me. It's something I can't screw up, and that's saying something considering I screw up literally almost everything.

I almost screwed up my friendship with Frey when everyone found out I was a spy for the Sech empire. _How could I have believed that old, sick dragon killed my family? How could I have believed the empire so blindly? Even after that, I still continue to screw things up. I can't tell Frey how I really feel…I even once told her she acted just like one of the guys. She wouldn't speak to me for a week. A WEEK. After that all she does is spend time with that damn horse._ I looked over at Frey, who was holding hands with Dylas when they thought no one was looking. _Damn…_

"We're here." Forte announced as we finally entered into the clearing. We were literally standing in the heart of Yokmire forest, where some of the most dangerous forest creatures live.

"This is where that apple tree monster like thing lives…" Frey muttered, "Doug, you and Dylas get on that ship and find the girl. Forte and I will take care of this…nuisance." And with that she drew her sword and got into fighting position. She is always so particular, always fighting professionally and intelligently. Even though she lost all of her memories, Frey maintains a perfect fighting stance. It's almost as if she's been military trained or something. It's really impressive to watch her slice up monsters with that sword of hers. Dylas smacked me on the back of my head, forcing me to stop watching Frey charge at the apple tree monster and follow him up onto the deck of the crashed airship.

"I don't see her out here…she must've ducked into the airship for cover when she crashed." He mumbled and we went inside. The inside of the ship was completely trashed. There were broken plates that had fallen out of the cabinets when the ship crashed and various undergarments thrown all over the place. The first room of the tiny cabin was the kitchen, which hardly qualified as a kitchen with a stove and microwave all crammed in one corner. There was also a little sink full of sparkly pink dishes that were now cracked and broken. The next room was the bed rooms. There was a bed on both sides of the room, one with purple blankets and the other with teal ones. They were unmade and had clothes thrown all over them. _Is this a pigsty or a girl's bedroom? I wouldn't be able to tell._

"They must've been living on here even when they got to the different towns…" I mumbled rummaging through a pile of pink and purple fluffy towels. "Do you think we should bring some of this stuff back home for their sake?" I asked Dylas.

"Hmm, maybe. If it's not destroyed we should take it back to town, because there's no way this ship is leaving this forest. It'll have to be burned." Dylas rolled his eyes, "What were those two thinking?" I kept searching and found a few picture frames. One was of two little girls looking up into the camera. The one on the left was obviously Emery. Her hair was a little longer and tied into a cute little bun with a pink ribbon. The girl on the right must be her sister. She had long, black hair and soft, emerald green eyes. Aside from facial features, you probably wouldn't even guess they were sisters.

"I think…I found her." Dylas finally said from the bathroom portion of the ship. I ran up to him and knelt down next to the girl. She was curled up in fetal position had had more than a few burns on her body. Her clothes were also burnt and torn.

"Her breathing is shallow…damn…look at these burns." I rolled her over and picked her up. She so light, she couldn't have weighed more than ninety pounds.

"So this is that girl's sister, huh. You could've fooled me. They look nothing alike." Dylas looked around the room once more. "Let me find a box and we'll put some of their stuff in it. Did you bring any bandages?" I sat the girl down on one of the beds and reached into my pockets for the spare gauze I keep on me at all times.

"Yeah, I brought some just in case. There are some pictures over there…they'd probably want to keep them." I replied as I attempted to bandage what little I could of the girl's burns. Frey and Forte finally stumbled into the room, sticks and leaves in their hair. They looked like a hot mess.

"What's taking you guy's so long?" Frey asked, annoyed as hell. I wouldn't blame her. We were taking our sweet time, chillin out in the cabin with some passed out chick.

"We're just getting some stuff for them…I don't want to make another trip out here." Dylas grumbled as he haphazardly threw clothes and various…undergarments in a box he found.

"Uh…just let me handle that." Forte rolled her eyes and pushed Dylas out of the way. "They probably wouldn't appreciate it if they knew some shady guy like _you_ went through their personal things." Emery's sister started to groan,

"Emery…" she wheezed and attempted to open her eyes. Frey was suddenly hovering over my shoulder, her motherly like instincts were showing again. She is always fretting about people, trying to make sure they're safe and the like.

"Shh, it's okay now. It's going to be okay…" Frey cooed and smoothed out the girls long, dark hair. _She's so close to me…I can smell the minty shampoo she uses…_ I thought as Frey's mint, green hair tickled my nose. _SHUT UP. GET YOURSELF TOGETHER._ I blushed and looked away from the two girls.

"I think we got everything important." Forte sighed, carrying two large boxes, Dylas slowly struggling behind her with two more.

"Right. Let's go." Frey got up and pulled out a spell book. "We'll use this spell to get back home, so everyone get ready." I stood up, holding Emery's sister in my arms. Before we finally left I spotted the picture I was holding earlier on the ground. I grabbed it quickly, before we all teleported back to the entrance of Selphia.

* * *

**Thanks for reading, once again! Please review if you have the time! :)**


	3. Esmeralda and the Babysitter

**I'm afraid after this chapter people are going to hate my character :( WHAT IS ChARACTER DEVELOPMENT EVEN? Hmm, I hope everyone enjoys the story so far. I spent all day editing this chapter, and trust me, you wouldn't even recognize if you saw the original. I completely changed an entire scene and now it's going to effect later editing issues. Oh well. If you have the time, please leave a review. Also, I promise I'm not some person who has no life! It seems like I'm spitting out chapters left and right, but that's really not the case. I just have a lot of free time at the moment. Anyways, please enjoy.**

Esmeralda and the Babysitter

"Emery…Eeeemmerrryyyyy!" Nancy, the nurse, sang into my ears while shaking me awake. I rubbed the sleep crust from my eyes as I sat up. After that guy came to visit me, I had passed out from pure exhaustion and somehow managed to sleep the day away. The sun was setting now, and most of the pain I was feeling from my sister was subsiding. All day Dr. Jones was studying me and asking me a million questions about how our souls are intertwined and all that good stuff. It was strange; most of the towns my sister and I have visited were never this nice to us. They were always leery of our presence. Then again, we never really trusted them either. This town was different. Everyone I had met so far seemed nice and welcoming. I didn't trust them right away, but the situation I was put in kind of forced me to put a little more faith in the people.

"They're back with your sister." Nancy smiled sweetly. _They don't know me, yet everyone has been so nice. Dr. Jones…Nancy…that guy who saved me and his friends who went to get my sister… We have to leave before we put these people into anymore danger. I can't let them…I can't handle having anymore blood on my hands._ I stood up, sporting one of the hospital gowns, and walked to the front entrance of the clinic. The clothes I was wearing when I first arrived were scorched and stained from the blood I had been coughing up. My body was still stiff and sore, but I couldn't lie in bed much longer. I had to go see my sister.

"Willow!" I breathed out a sigh of relief when I finally saw her in the arms of the red-headed man who saved my life. "I was so…" my throat got choked up and I had to cover my face to hide how badly I was blushing. I don't like to show my emotions very often. Yesterday, for example, was an exception. When I jumped off the ship, I really wasn't paying attention to what was underneath me. I wasn't thinking, but my sister insisted that it was the only way to guarantee safety. I crossed myself in prayer and hoped for the best, and when I realized I was still alive, I was filled with adrenaline. _I probably shouldn't have kissed him, but I clearly wasn't thinking straight._ The girl with the green hair and pigtails giggled a bit,

"She looks like you when you blush, Dylas." I remember her from yesterday. She pulled a sword on me and threatened to cut my throat. The only logical one in this town, I'm assuming. I would have done the same thing if I was in her position. Dylas, the man she was referring to, scowled a bit. Charming.

"Uh-huh." Him and Frey were carrying some large boxes full of stuff, probably things they took from the airship, and sat them down against the wall. They looked heavy.

"I'll just set her on this bed then…" I heard the redhead guy tell Nancy, and we all followed them into the patient's rooms.

"Thank you so much, Doug. Hey, nice handy work on the bandages and burn cream, maybe you should work here too!" Nancy laughed, "Emery told me about how their souls are bound. I've never heard of such a thing; it's really quite strange, isn't it? Well, she is a strange girl. She talks in her sleep about the weirdest things…" Nancy continued to ramble for awhile until I cleared my throat to get her attention. _I talk in my sleep? Great. Didn't know that one_.

"Thank you for taking care of me, Nancy. It's really appreciated." I attempted to smile, but I'm not very good at those kinds of things. She giggled nervously and left the room, leaving me alone with the three people who saved my sister.

"Your name is Doug, yes?" I asked, wanting to confirm the name of my sister and I's savior. He stared at me a bit and smiled weakly,

"Yeah…" his grey eyes sparkled in the harsh light of the clinic. I ran a hand through my messy, blond hair and sighed.

"I owe you all so much right now. I'm just…I'm just so grateful for everything you all have done." I looked up at the ceiling so he couldn't see the tears threatening my eyes, "I don't like owing people things, so if you ever need help with anything just ask me." Doug glanced over at the girl with the green pigtails. She was short and cute with a bubbly personality, though at the same time she seemed like she could be very serious. It was also clear that she saw herself as the protector of the town, seeing as how she was the only one who challenged me when I arrived, and how she went to find my airship. Her and that Dylas guy were on the other side of the room, not wanting to participate in the conversation between Doug and I. "You know, if you like her, you should tell her." I muttered under my breath, careful so the girl wouldn't hear me. Doug widened his eyes in shock, obviously not expecting me to notice.

"I-I can't…there aren't any places where I can tell her in private." He grimaced and I smirked.

"You'd be surprised about what I can actually do given the proper preparation." I explained matter-of-factly. _I still don't know these people well, so I should probably not mention that my sister and I are quite powerful in the world of magic. _I turned to move over to my sister who was still asleep, but at least her pain was subsiding. I could feel it leaving our bodies. _I shouldn't have left you up there. I'm so sorry._ I sat on the bed and leaned down to kiss her forehead. _If something where to have happened to you, I would never be able to forgive myself._

"If something were to happen to me, you wouldn't know because you'd be dead too, you idiot." She muttered in her sleep and I laughed, knowing she had heard my thoughts. Just another trick of ours. That will all be explained at a later time, though.

"Did she…Did she just say something to you?" Nancy asked from the doorway, surprised. "You didn't even say anything to her!" I forced myself to not roll my eyes. _This is precisely why we need to leave here. As soon as Willow is better, we have to go. These people…they're too kind. They'll never be able to understand why we can't get close to them or why we can't open ourselves up or why we can't fully trust them._

"She didn't say anything" I replied as I stood up from my sister's bed. "So, uh, sleeping arrangements. How was my ship?"

"It's destroyed, but we managed to bring some stuff for you guys." The pigtail girl explained, walking over to me, but then stopped and stared.

"What."

"YOUR ship?" She asked confused and then I rolled my eyes before I could stop myself. _Is she kidding me? What, does she think I stole it or something?_

"It was a gift. Anyways, rooming arrangements," I waved my hand in a 'get on with it' motion. _I __**cannot**__ deal with this right now. I can't __**believe**__ that my ship was destroyed. That was the last heirloom from my parents…My father had actually helped build it. Before he met mom, he had already traveled to the far edges of the region in it._

"The inn is full." Dylas interrupted dryly, "So is the restaurant." _Great. Looks like we are already being kicked out._ I ran my hands through my hair in frustration, once again. _This situation couldn't possibly get any worse, could it? _

"Aren't there a few vacant houses?" Doug asked Frey, and she shook her head. _We had to wind up in the one town that has absolutely no places for us to stay. Wonderful. Simply wonderful._

"I suppose you two could stay with me." Frey finally sighed in defeat, "I have my house fully expanded and have several rooms that I don't use for anything other than storage. Of course we'll have to get a couple of beds, but you two would have your own room." I smiled meekly at her. She was taking a great risk housing a pair of sisters she had never met before.

"Thank you," I smiled at her, but she didn't return the gesture. She still didn't trust me, and with good reason. "This won't last long, I swear. As soon as we can get a new airship, my sister and I will be leaving. Oh, yeah, by the way my name is Esmeralda, but you can call me Emery for short." I stuck out my hand to her and she took it.

"I'm Frey, this is Dylas and Doug." She nodded at the two guys and we all shook hands. It was an official introduction to everyone. _Frey…that name sounds familiar to me. _"Well, I suppose we should start getting things ready. Dylas and I will go order some new beds and I guess you and Doug can head over to my place. We'll meet you soon." And so we dispersed. I told my unconscious sister goodbye, changed into a pair of the clothes they brought back from the airship, and left with Doug for Frey's house. _She doesn't like me. I can tell. That's fine, I don't really care. I just need to hurry up and get out of here! We're not here to make friends. Friends are a luxury we cannot afford at this point. Everyone betrays us in the end, and we don't aim for making a mistake like that again. I'm being vague, but my life story isn't something I like to think about. Willow, my sister, and I have been through enough to know that you can't stay in one place for too long. The time we spend in one place is getting shorter and shorter, too. Sooner or later the people chasing after us will figure out where we are, and they don't care who they have to kill to get to us. I've lost too many friends to do this over again._

Upon entering the plaza, the area where I crashed into Doug, we stopped at the entrance to the right wing of a large castle. It was enormously beautiful and breathtaking. I shifted the box I was carrying full of Willow and I's stuff to my hip,

"Wow, this place is huge." I whistled and stared up at it. It was a pale blue color with white flowers growing on the side of it. Doug grunted as he pushed open the door with the two other boxes he was carrying. "Wh-what, is this where Frey lives?!" I asked, following him into the room. He nodded,

"She is a princess after all." _So he's fallen in love with a princess? Wow. Aiming high, this one is._ Frey had given us instructions to set our things in the upstairs rooms. _She lives here alone, yet she has so much room._ The first room we entered was filled with various weaponry and various ore haphazardly strewn about it.

"I guess we can set Willow's stuff in here. It will take longer to clean it up, and since she is still in the clinic, we can afford to take our time with it." I sighed, starting to remove my sister's clothes and personal items out of the boxes. Doug watched me quietly as I attempted to organize the various items. Willow's blankets, towels, and toiletries were all purple so we could easily tell our stuff apart. We shared some clothes, but mostly she wore black and purple and never wore any skirts or sweaters. Those were mine.

"So, you said you could take me anywhere I wanted to go," He started, still not helping me with the organization of my sister's things. Not like I needed help, anyways, but his presence wasn't quite needed.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that." I muttered while folding Willow's socks. I glanced over at him and saw that he was watching me intently. "What?"

"I guess I just don't understand." He sighed and I shook my head. I continued to unpack until the silence got to be too much. I mean, I couldn't just let the conversation end like that. Clearly, he wanted an explanation and I was not in the mood to do so.

"You don't need to, but if you want help courting Frey, I could help you with that." Again, there was more silence. I had the feeling that he was sent with me to babysit. "You don't have to watch me like that; I'm not going to kill anyone." I sighed.

"Oh, allright." He reached into one of the boxes and pulled out a picture frame. "I found this and thought you'd like to keep it." He said, not quite looking me in the eye. I took it from him and examined it. It was a picture of Willow and I on my eighth birthday party. Willow was only six. I smiled sadly, remembering all the good memories. Memories before we figured out who we were. Before we figured out _what_ we were.

"This is my favorite picture." I mentioned as I took it from his hands and put it back down on one of my sister's piles of clothes. We have tons of stuff like that. Everywhere we go, we take hundreds of photos so we never forget the people we meet and the places we've been. When we're traveling between towns, there are nights where we sit up late looking though the albums and reminisce.

"You sure do have a lot of stuff." Doug commented as he began to try and help me as we went through various spell books and trinkets from the many countries and towns my sister and I have been to. "What is this?" he asked pulling out a silver locket. He opened it and furrowed his brow.

"An old friend gave that to me." I said stoically. _Nope. Not going to talk about this one. We're not going there. No way, no how. _

"An old boyfriend? What's his name?" He asked curiously,

"He's dead." I snatched the locket away and put it safely back in my jewelry box. How they even found this shit amazes me. That ship must have been a mess…we are horrible at cleaning our rooms. _I shouldn't have even kept that damn thing anyways. Well, it __**is**__ a good reminder for why I don't get involved with anyone. Ever. Not after that incident. You open up your heart, only to be betrayed. Honestly, I should have listened to Willow when she warned me about that guy. Though, __**she's**__ not a saint either. She's also had her fair share of bad relationships, too. In the end, we only have each other._ "Bringing the subject back up, are you going to tell Frey how you feel?" I asked him, trying to change the subject. He seemed a bit surprised, so I could only guess what he was thinking. Probably wanting to know how that guy died. _Don't even waste your time thinking about him, buddy. He's scum on the bottom of your boots. _

"I don't know." He mumbled, setting the third cook book he'd found down on the floor. "What do you think?"

"If you don't tell, you'll never know." I repeated myself from before. I will always stand by this statement, for it is one of the few truths I have learned in life. You have to let people know how you feel before it's too late. "You know, since I owe you for saving my life and all, I can help you out." Doug looked at me unsure,

"How?" He asked, and I shrugged.

"I don't know. We could like…set up a little scheme to get you guys alone or something…" I lamely suggested. _Ah, maybe I should have mentioned that I know absolutely nothing about these kinds of things. I preach that you have to tell people how you feel, yet I find that I have a problem with that myself. I'm also really awful at planning things. Willow is the one who is good at getting things together. She used to pull the most elaborate pranks on people…including myself. They were funny when they weren't happening to you._

"Wow, gee, if I wanted that kind of help I would've just asked Pico." He shook his head annoyed at me.

"Who? Hey, man, I never said I was any good at stuff like this." I laughed a little, "But it's still worth a try, right? Why don't we set up a little date? I could ask her to eat lunch and then instead of me going, you could go for me!" Doug just sighed even heavier.

"You are so…_lame._ I mean, that would never work. It would just make me look like an idiot and then she'd probably reject me."

"Why do I get the feeling that you're a complete narcissist?" I finally finished unpacking Willow's stuff and picked up my box to move on to my room. Doug stood up and followed me.

"I don't understand what you mean."

"All you talk about is whether or not you'll be rejected, you don't actually consider how Frey feels. Like, all you care about is what will happen to you." I explained. This might not even make sense, but I feel like someone who only cares about how they'll look in front of everyone, whether they will look like an idiot or not, is a little self involved. Call me crazy, but is that not what he's doing? Doug hasn't actually mentioned anything meaningful about Frey.

"I am _not_ self involved!" He snapped defensively, "You don't even know what you're talking about!" I shrugged,

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't, but right now I am giving you the best opinion you could hope for at this point. Think about it, you're getting an outsider's point of view. Someone who's friends with neither of you, and only knows the basic facts." We entered what was supposed to be my room and I sat the boxes back down and began to unpack my belongings. It was easier now because everything was already separated from my sister's stuff. Anything that is teal belongs to me, and anything purple belongs to her. If it's a sweater, it's mine. If they're pants, they're hers. Easy as apple pie.

"I don't think you actually know what you're talking about." Doug sat back down next to me. He's quite the chatter bug, and it's really not something I want to deal with at this hour. Don't get me wrong, I'm still extremely grateful for him saving my life, but I actually like being alone most of the time. I enjoy the silence; it gives me time to think. "_Bringing the subject back up,_ didn't you say that you could take me anywhere I wanted to go?" He asked, and I stiffened my posture. _Yes, but only because I wasn't thinking straight. I really don't want to have this conversation right now. _I tried to ignore his question, but he wasn't having any of that nonsense. Several more questions were asked before I finally answered him.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. That doesn't really matter right now, does it?" I replied exasperatedly. _I know I don't really have any room to be acting like this. _

"Why can't you just answer my question?" Doug demanded and I looked away angrily.

"You don't even know me, so I don't think you are in any position to be demanding things from me."

"Well, you kind of put our entire town in danger so I don't think _you_ are the one to be in any position to dismiss my questions." _He's so freaking relentless._

"Didn't you're mother teach you that strangers, no matter how kind they might seem, are dangerous?" I asked dryly.

"My mother's dead." And the conversation was killed. We heard Frey enter downstairs.

"Thank all that is holy. You can quit being my babysitter now." I sighed and we stood up to go back down stairs.

"You're not going to make any friends with that kind of attitude. Everyone here is going out of their way to be incredibly nice to you and your sister and you're just being rude." Doug huffed as we began to walk down the stairs. I pushed passed him,

"I didn't come here to make friends."

* * *

**I really love Emery, actually. I know people probably don't like the fact that I brought my own characters into the story, buuuut that's just something I like to do. I don't know why, but sometimes it helps with character development and what not. Plus its fun to have people that the readers can't guess what they're going to do next! Well, that's how I think of it anyways. Thanks for taking the time to read! Please review, I like feed back. :)**


	4. Pretty Odd

Pretty Odd

You would think that after living in Selphia for two years, going on my third, things would have slowed down by now. My first years, after falling from the deck of an airship, had gone off with a bang. There I was standing in the middle of a castle and in front of a _dragon _no less. It was obviously going to be a very predictable first year. Most of it was spent saving the four guardians and then hunting down these beautiful stones called rune spheres to take their place. The dragon, Lady Ventuswill, was extremely sick and needed my help. In the process, I acquired one of my very best friends . She was amazing. However, replacing the rune spheres did not work the way we had planned. In the summer of my second year in Selphia, one of my closest friends turned out to be a spy for the Sechs Empire. I was shocked, to say the least. Though, in the end he switched sides and fought for Selphia along side with me. We didn't succeed. The leader of the Sechs Empire, Ethlebert, stole the rune spheres to use them for his own selfish reasons. With the help of my new friends, I defeated him, but it was too late. Ventuswill used her remaining energy to destroy him…and that's an extremely condensed version of the story.

And now I have this…_weirdo_ to take care of. Two days ago she fell from an airship just as I had two years ago today. Though, she still has her memories as well as a sister. I just don't get it. I thought that this was the year to relax and take things easy for once. Being a princess alone is difficult, adding a person from a completely different region, possibly a different _realm_ even, puts this onto a whole different level. This is not what I signed up for. I thought, since my best friend died, I could have time to sufficiently move on. My friends don't understand. They're all excited to meet these people, but are completely ignorant of the danger. We don't know them.

"Princess, the sun is up! Time to be awake!" My dear friend and butler, Vishnal, called out to me. He leaned over my bed, but my eyes were already open. To be honest, I had been awake for a few hours now. Sleeping didn't come easy last night, for I was so worried about my new roommate to even _think_ about sleeping. I am aware that the citizens of Selphia acted similarly to when I arrived, but I can't shake the feeling that there is something off about these girls. Stretching like a cat, I sat up to face Vishnal.

"Vin," I yawned, "it's too early for this." The blue haired waiter cocked his head at me in amusement. He was a very animated character. I finally stood up and swept my hair into two, long pigtails. "I have a new roommate, if you would just wait a few while I change, I'd like to introduce you two. You will need to wake her in the mornings, for as long as she is staying, because she will be working on the farm with me. We don't house free loaders here." Vishnal nodded and I went behind my wardrobe to change out of my pajamas. When that was done, I led him into the first upstairs room. Apparently, while I was ordering new furniture, Esmeralda cleaned this room. Before then, it was completely covered in various tools and ore. Now everything was stashed neatly in their respectable places. _Impressive._ Obviously, this room was meant for Willow, because one: Emery wasn't present and two: there was still some major cleaning to do. We followed the hallway into the next room where we saw Esmeralda pacing about the room. She had already gotten dressed in that strange attire of hers: a large teal sweater, a skirt, and some form of tights. I don't understand this fashion sense. The clothes aren't like anything you would find someone wearing around here. **_Where_**_ is she even from?_

"Good morning, Esmeralda." I greeted her, and in turn startled the poor thing from her thoughts. She stopped in the middle of the room and looked at us with her big, blue eyes.

"Good morning, Princess Frey." She bowed slightly and stood upright. It was unusual for me to be greeted with such formality. This personality she was giving off today was strangely different from yesterday. Yesterday she had been very outspoken and even bordered the line of being rude. _I'm getting the feeling that she's slightly bipolar. Two days ago, she was brimming with excitement, yesterday she was horribly rude, and today…she's respectful? I don't get it._

"Please, you don't have to be so formal." I scoffed and turned to Vishnal, "I want you to meet my friend Vishnal. He'll be waking you up in the morning for now on." I let Vishnal approach her, arm stretched out for a hand shake. Emery hesitantly took hold of it,

"It's nice to meet you, Esmeralda." Vishnal smiled at her and she stepped back a little,

"Nice to meet you…" she paused before grabbing at the edges of her sweater nervously, "You can call me Emery." For some reason, Emery was refusing to look him in the eyes. Yes, she is a very odd person indeed.

"You have a very beautiful full name, is it okay if I use it?" Emery stared at the floor, not saying anything. Biting her lip slightly, it was obvious she was trying hard to think of something to say back to him. I wonder why she is being so shy when she was so ready to take charge yesterday. It's just not making sense to me. If she is bipolar, that's one thing, but this is different from having atrocious mood swings. _So why is she being so careful with her wording? Why won't she look anyone in the eye? _

"It's been a long time since anyone has called me by my full name," She glanced at me and then quickly looked away again, "Thank you, though. My father was the one who chose it." There was an awkward silence for awhile. No one really knew what to say. Emery was visibly uncomfortable standing in the middle of the room, pulling at the sleeves of her sweater. Vishnal, bless his soul, was looking from me to Emery in a confused manner. I cleared my throat,

"Well, Emery, we have a long day ahead of us. I would first like to show you around the farm and then we'll go out for lunch." I turned around to leave the room. It took a few seconds, but soon I could hear the soft footsteps of my new roommate following close behind me. When we exited the castle and entered my fields, we were greeted by the morning sun and a chorus of chirping birds. Spring had truly begun by now and my newly planted crops were just sprouting. I took out two water pots, my good one and also a cheap one I was given when I first arrived. Handing the cheap one to Emery, I led her to the watering well and instructed her to start watering. She didn't seem to have much trouble doing this, and it actually sped the time it took to care of my fields up. When we were done, we took a quick seat in the shade of one of my apple trees.

"This reminds me of when I was younger. My father had a small vegetable garden." Esmeralda mentioned as she wiped the sweat from her forehead. The comment took me off guard because I really wasn't expecting her to actually talk to me. I glanced at her and we made awkward eye contact, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that out loud. Is there anything else that needs to be done?" I nodded and we stood up.

"I have a few _pets_." I grinned and led her into my monster barn. I had a buffamoo, a wooly, a cluckadoodle, and then there was Thunderbolt. When we entered, all of my monsters except for Thunderbolt came to greet us. He still didn't trust me, but that's okay. I'll get to him sooner or later. Giggling, I handed Emery a brush and we got to work.

"These aren't what I'd classify as pets…" Emery smirked as my wooly, Babel, licked her face. "They look a little like monsters if you'd ask me." I sighed as I gathered the eggs, milk, and wool from my pets.

"You'd have to admit they're cute, though." I laughed a bit and so did she. We looked back at each other for a split second before she quickly looked away again, "You've been acting differently today."

"How would you know if I was acting differently? You don't even know me." She scoffed and stood up from crouching down next to Babel. I rolled my eyes, there's the attitude I was looking for. Emery quickly realized how she was acting and sighed heavily, "S-sorry."

"Just drop this stupid facade, already. We both know how you really are, and this shy, meek girl act doesn't suite you very well." I narrowed my eyes at her and continued to take care of my monsters. "Don't think that trying to get on my good side will help you in anyway. These people, my friends, might already trust you, but I'm not naïve."

"I don't need to earn your trust; I just want to leave this place." She snapped and I glared at her,

"How do I know that's what you want? I don't know you. You entered my city through a monster gate, and you just expect us to let you do whatever you want?!" I don't know why I'm getting so riled up, but I can't stop now. I have to say what's on my mind…Just sitting here and watching her isn't enough. You have to lay the law down for these kinds of people or else they'll step all over you and take advantage of your kindness.

"How I got here isn't important and I don't expect anything from you! We're not even supposed to _be_ here!" Emery's cheeks began to turn red, but I just couldn't drop the subject. I wanted- no, needed, to know more information about her life.

"Whatever." I spat and turned to finish up my work.

"I was _trying_ to be nice so maybe you could let my sister and I have an airship so we could leave. As soon as that happens, we'll never bother you again. It's like I told that damned idiot last night, we're not here to make friends."

"**_Fine._** We'll have to talk to Arthur before getting an airship, and as soon as your sister is healed, you're out of here." I finished brushing Thunderbolt and we walked back outside "Let's just go get lunch. I'm hungry." And with that we left for Porcoline's for lunch. For the most part, we walked in silence. Every now and then I pointed out a few buildings to Emery for future reference. She was going to be my new errand girl, and I didn't want her to have the excuse that she got lost on the way to buy some seeds or food and ingredients. _I still don't trust this girl. The sooner she's out of here, the better. I still can't shake the feeling that the two sisters are bad news. It's like a rock has settled in the pit of my stomach._

We had finally arrived at the restaurant and order our food when I spotted Arthur. He'd finally emerged from his office for the day, and I waved him over. _Thank the gods that someone is here to save me from this awkward lunch! _

"Emery, I would like to introduce you to Prince Arthur." I announced and Emery quickly stood up to bow. I still didn't understand why she insisted on being so formal. Even after our little argument in the monster barn, she was still extremely polite and considerate.

"Hello, nice to meet you." She quietly said and then sat back down. Arthur smiled and took the seat next to me,

"So you're the one who is causing the gossip to buzz." He laughed and Emery sat there awkwardly. Again, she was using that same facade she used when I introduced her to Vishnal.

"I-I guess." She began to mess with her sweater again, a habit I was starting to notice she had whenever she was nervous (or pretending to be nervous). "It's nice to meet you and all, but Frey said that you're the one I had to talk to in order to get an airship."

"Actually, the only airship we have is borrowed from Porcoline." Arthur studied her in the same manner a child would with a science experiment. I don't even blame him for that one. Emery was a little more than just odd. She was flat out _weird_. The way she dressed was weird, sometimes the way she talked was weird, and her mannerisms were weird. Esmeralda bit her lip,

"How long would it take to get a new one here?" I asked him and he thought about it for a few minutes.

"Well, I suppose with all the preparations it takes to get the materials to build a new one, if you are looking to _keep_ it, would take about…a year." He rubbed his chin and I sighed heavily before looking at the god awful look on Emery's face. She was as white as a sheet of paper.

"A-a y-year?" she whispered and looked from Arthur to me. "E-excuse me, I need some air!" Emery quickly stood up from the table, bowed, and rushed out of the restaurant before we even got our food. Arthur looked at me in amusement,

"What was that about?" He asked and I shrugged my shoulders. _Damn girl…_

"Arthur, are you positive it will take a year to get a new one here?" I asked and he nodded,

"Why, are you not happy to have a new member in town?" He smiled and I blushed a little in embarrassment. Everyone surly already knew that I already didn't trust the new girl. It was all I could talk about when we went to save her sister Willow and I also mentioned it several times to Dylas on the way to the furniture store. Kiel most likely heard from his sister, Forte, and has probably told the entire town by now.

"I just don't trust her. We don't know anything about this girl and her sister, and there's no telling what kind of enemies they have. You saw how that airship got bombed…" I sighed, and Arthur just shook his head knowingly.

"Frey, you have to remember how kind everyone was when you first arrived." He reminded me,

"Yeah, but that's different."

"Is it?"

* * *

**Thanks for everyone who has been favoring/following/reviewing my story! It always makes me happy to see that people are enjoying it. :D I get so excited when I get emails that tell me that someone new has left a review or something! I know, I'm a little weird. Haha, but thank you! It's all really appreciated. To anyone new reading this story, please don't be afraid to review! I like to hear back from people. I hope everyone enjoyed the new chapter! I really want to comment on how the next chapter is going to go, but I don't want to give anything away! It's so hard to keep quite about my plans for this story.**


	5. Willow's Memories

**Holy mother of God this took so long. Fanfiction was being really frustrating when I was trying to upload this, but I decided I would persevere and get it done tonight. I hope everyone likes this chapter, it's a little dense and has a lot of back story. The next few won't be like this, though. They'll probably have a lot more light, happy, fun stuff going on. Filler chapter stuff and the like, you know. Anyways, I hope you enjoy...and review :) Thanks for reading!**

* * *

Willow's Memories

_ It was half past midnight when I was roughly awakened by my sister, Esmeralda. She lightly slapped my cheeks to make sure I was fully awake and coherent and opened her mouth to speak, but the look in her eyes told me all that I needed to know. Our location had been found out once again, and as we were sitting there, soldiers were entering Mineral Town. It was so dark out, but I blindly threw the covers off of my body and started shoving clothes into a small rucksack. __**Not tonight…Why did this happen tonight?**__ I thought as my sister took a look outside our cabin to make sure no one was coming our way. Our friend, Claire, slammed the door close as she rushed inside and quickly told us we had to get out of town. We knew she was right. After taking a quick look out the two windows on both sides of the door, Esmeralda took hold of my hand and we started running towards the woods. That's where we were hiding our airship while we were living in town. Some of the villagers were coming out of their houses to see what all the commotion was about. The panicked look in their eyes tore my heart apart, but I couldn't stop to reassure them. I couldn't stop to say goodbye. It's always like this: painful, upsetting, and dangerous. If we don't get out of here soon, some of my best friends could die. About halfway to the woods, we were ambushed by two soldiers. I drew my twin blades and prepared for a fight, but Emery gambled and paralyzed them in order to save more time. __**Stupid girl! You're supposed to save your magic for the gate! **__She should know better. Our magic is powerful, but it can also be very limited and f we use large amounts of it, we could wear our bodies out. It didn't take much longer before we reached the airship with Claire following close behind. _

_ "Get out of here __**now**__!" She yelled as she wielded the only possible weapon she could think of: her sickle. My sister and I started to open the portal-like-gate, but we were moving too slow. A small group of five soldiers had finally caught up with us and were now ganging up on Claire, who stood protectively in front of the airship. I screamed for her to jump on the ship, but she wouldn't listen. As the airship slowly started to lift into the air, I thought to myself that we had finally outsmarted the soldiers this time, but things are rarely as easy as they seem. Knowing Claire wouldn't last much longer on the ground, Esmeralda and I stretched out our arms in desperation for her to grab out hands. She refused. We had never taken anyone else with us before, but Claire had become one of our closest friends during our two year stay. Before we became too high for her to jump on, Claire looked up at us, smiling. "Forever." She mouthed to us just before a soldier ambushed her from behind and killed her. _

"_NO!" Hot tears of anger streamed down my face as my screech echoed through the woods. I slammed my fist down on the side of the ship and sunk to my knees, resting my head upon the ledge. __**Dammit, Claire!**__ Esmeralda yanked me away from the edge; we thought that coming to a realm where monsters didn't exist and people didn't fight with swords would keep everyone safe, but we were so, so, so very wrong. Claire only had a __**sickle **__to protect herself and we brought this danger to her. __**Forever. We'll be best friends forever, no matter what, through life and in death. **__"I'm going to throw up," I stood back up and began to pace around, hand covering my mouth. How many more lives did we have to endanger like this? How many more friends had to die this way before we finally gave up? I glanced over my shoulder just as our ship started to enter the gate Emery and I had made. __**We're so close to getting out of here**__, but just as that thought entered my mind, one of the enemies air ships appeared behind us. __**Dammit! **__I stood up, trying to put Claire in the back of my mind._

_ "Willow! Take care of it!" Emery yelled at me, trying to maintain the gate while she could, and I sprinted to the rear of our ship. A flash of heat whirled past my head as I neared the back end. Looking up, I realized what the soldiers were doing. They were launching giant balls of fire at our ship in an attempt to take it down. __**You've got to be kidding me! **__ I tried hard to eliminate them before they hit us by launching various water lasers at them, but it proved to be a useless attempt. Two fireballs hit the left side and we lurched a bit, but still managed to stay airborne. We were about halfway through the gate now and picking up speed. __**If I can hold off these idiots for a few more minutes, we'll be out of here.**__ The captain of the other airship appeared at the bow and stepped up, as if he were contemplating on jumping the gap between us. He knew he was at risk of losing us for probably another year before he found us again. If he gets past me, he could knock Emery out of position and destroy the gate. He wouldn't kill us because he has to deliver us alive, but he could hurt us. A thought occurred to me: now that we're halfway through, it's already guaranteed that we're in a new world. If I take Emery's position, she could get off the ship safely and we wouldn't run the risk of the gate being destroyed._

"_ESMERALDA! JUMP! I CAN HANDLE THE GATE!" I screamed over my shoulder in desperation and my sister shook her head. "Don't be an idiot! I'll be there right after I close the gate, I promise!" I plead and Esmeralda looked at the situation that was occurring. The crew of the other ship was clearing a path so the captain could jump after us. We were running out of time, and she could see that._

_Our ship was almost out of the gate, so the captain only had a few more seconds to make a decision. He only had to jump through, and then he'd be able to report where we were. There was no chance of the portal being destroyed now, but it would still be safer if my sister was to jump. The fire at the end of the ship was growing large, and the ship was losing air quickly. Soon we'll crash, and there's no use in both of us being injured._

"_If you don't jump after me, I'll kick your ass!" Emery yelled and crossed herself before jumping. I was too busy to pay attention to her threat. Just as our airship fully went through the gate, the captain hurled himself through and I was forced to close it before anyone else could do the same. I drew my blades once again and he drew his long-ass sword. We stood there for a long time, glaring at each other. Due to the head gear he was wearing, I couldn't quite make out the facial features of the captain, but I could see his angry, purple eyes burning a hole into my head._

"_C'mon and fight me, you bastard!" I screamed and he lunged forward. I barely dodged his attack and suddenly backed up into defense mode. He kept swinging at me, to which I had to block. __**Attack, attack, block, attack, attack, block…tell me, captain, what is your weakness?**__ And then I saw it. For a few split seconds he would leave his guard down after the second attack, before raising his shield to block any counter attack of mine. I smirked and went in for the blow, but he sensed it coming and quickly moved out of the way. __**Dammit!**__**Maybe this isn't a battle to use swords…But I've already used a great deal of magic…**__I sheathed my blades and rose my fists. The stakes were high, and I had to do something. The way I was fighting now wasn't going to cut it._

"_The fact that you think you can fight with fists against my sword lets me know how this battle is going to end." He laughed as he started hurling himself after me again and again. I started using the magic my parents had taught me and iced various parts of the deck where I anticipated he would move to. Finally he slipped. I only had a few seconds to unsheathe my swords and make my move before he gets back up. __**This is for Claire!**__I thought right as I dealt my final attack, but just as my sword made contact with his body, the air ship crashed into a dense forest. We were so caught up in fighting, we didn't realize that the ship was losing air fast and was heading for a dense forest. I didn't have time to protect myself, and the force was so strong I actually tumbled into the cabin part of the ship and hit my head on some blunt object… _

I awoke to a very soothing, high pitched voice talking just above me as they applied some sort of cool gel to my forehead. It stung like a fresh cut. There was also another voice replying to the first. That one was very enthusiastic sounding, but also very sweet and gentle. I tried to open my eyes, but the florescent lights blinded me. It took a few seconds before my vision came back to me. My mouth was dry and my throat sore, but I was alive, somehow. My body was hot and burning, but I forced myself to roll over onto my side. I figured that when I hit my head, that captain would have finished me off. No, I take that back. He would have taken me back to my uncle, the person hunting my sister and I. Though, I can only imagine that the reason he did that was because he knew Esmeralda would come looking for me and lead him back to town. Then he would know just where we were and would be able to get that information to Uncle. So, the question now is: where did the captain go? The figure who was messing with my cuts moved back to where I could see a light blue nurse's apron covering a long bubblegum pink dress. _I'm…in a clinic of some sort? _I was beginning to start to make out the two figures. One was a woman, the nurse, and the other was a male with shoulder length blue hair. The woman began to walk away into the other room and I tried to call out to her, but my mouth was too dry. She left and I made eye contact with the strange man sitting across from me on the edge of another bed. He had…purplish-blue eyes. Although he was no longer in armor, he couldn't fool me!

"_**You**_…" I forced myself to speak, "_**BASTARD!**_" I sprang up from the bed I was lying in, dizzy and exhausted, and pointed my finger accusingly at him. He stood up in surprise and called out a weird name I could not yet comprehend. _Dr…Jones?_

"Willow! You need to sit down or you'll open your wounds again…" The tried to soothe me, but I would not have any of that nonsense!

"You can't fool me, Captain!" I brought my fists up just as I had on the deck of my airship, this time wielding a fire spell. The Captain stumbled backward as some man in a lab coat appeared in the doorway and rushed past him. Before I could react I felt a sharp sting in my left arm and my vision started to blur once again as I collapsed onto the bed.

_It was winter and Esmeralda and I were locked away in the highest tower of my uncle's castle. For the past week we had been going through excruciating pain in order to fulfill his stupid experiments. This was not the life father and mother wanted for us. Emery says that they sacrificed their lives so that we could live happily and healthily away from Uncle and Grandfather, who were so power hungry they tried to physically extract our parents' magic from their bodies. They had two plans: one was to obtain these blue, glowing spheres and insert them into their bodies, and the other one, if the first fails was to figure out a way to remove magic from other humans' bodies. In the meantime, Uncle was to experiment with us as he pleased. Emery says that's why we've been on the run for six years now. Which reminds me, today is actually my sixteenth birthday. Many girls dream about their sixteen birthdays and what kind of parties they'd have with great anticipation. They would have elaborate celebrations with giant cakes and other ridiculous things. It always seemed to be too much, for me, but all the excitement made me also crave the day I would turn sixteen. Sweet Sixteen. It's funny now because the day I anticipated for so long is being spent bruised, dirty, and exhausted in a dingy, cold, damp tower._

_Suddenly, we heard footsteps walking up the spiraling stairs leading to our room. Esmeralda told me to move behind her, so they would take her instead of me. They ended up taking both of us, but I foolishly tried to fight back. This wasn't my first time, either. In fact, it was probably the sixth time this week I'd attempted to fight the guards, but every time I fail and my sister takes my punishment. The larger, fatter guard grabbed my arm and slammed me against the wall. It hurt, but not as much as the experiments did. Emery told them to take her for my punishment and they dragged her out of the room. The way they grabbed her and pulled her along angered me even more, but I held back for now. I knew if I tried anything else, I'd just make it worse for her. She was short, but the guards didn't care. If she couldn't keep up with them, they'd just pull her along all the same. _

_I could hear her screaming all the way from the first floor, and I knew what they were doing to her. My uncle had this special whip that was enchanted with fire. Every time he flicked it and it made contact with something, it would burn the hell out of it. You could only imagine what it would do on human skin. I've had a few lashings myself, but most of the time Esmeralda takes on my punishment as well as hers. She's always trying to protect me, but it only makes her even more of an idiot. When they finally brought my sister back from the torture room, she was already half death and barely breathing. I panicked and tried to remember all the various spells my mother had taught me during our magic lessons, but there were no healing spells I could remember. Only one spell came to mind._

_The soul binding spell was an extremely difficult and intricate spell to master, but I only had a few seconds to do that. I only half-way remember reading about it, not the actually practicing of it. It was one of those spells that was only to be used during emergencies, and it was not yet known if there was a reversal for it. However, it halved the pain a person was suffering from and made the body stronger. It made it easier to recover from fatal injuries. So, without hesitation, I performed the spell and my sister began to slowly heal. My body suffered in the process, but it was worth it. The pain was split in half, and I curled up on the cold floor, holding my sisters hand…_

My head was swimming when I awoke for the second time in the strange, hospital like room. This time, I did not hear any voices reading to me, only silence. I opened eyes, again being blinded by the florescent lights, but sitting next to the man I screamed at was my sister, Emery. _What is she doing sitting next to that dangerous man? Why does she look so angry?_

"Good afternoon, _Willow._" She seethed, and I slowly sat up. My head felt strange…you know, it's like when you have a half headache where it's not a sharp pain, but it makes it difficult to pay attention and focus on important details. If it hadn't been for this phenomena, maybe I would have realized the man hiding behind my sister wasn't the captain, but in fact a butler. But alas, that is just not how things go these days. So, as I mentioned, the "captain" was so frightened he was hiding behind my sister for protection, and the blond boy who had been reading to me earlier was now gone.

"Emery, that man is _dangerous_! He is the captain of the airship that attacked us, get away from him _now._" I growled at her and she glared at me. _How can she be so calm about this? This man is a cold blooded killer! If it hadn't been for his strict orders, I would be dead right now._

"That is impossible, Willow, because this fine fellow here is named Vishnal and he is probably the nicest guys I've had the pleasure of meeting while you've been _unconscious_ for a few days." Esmeralda patted Vishnal on the back and he blushed in nervous embarrassment. Her tone was one that you would use to talk to a child who had just done something very, very bad. She always treated me like a kid, even if I'm only two years younger than her. It's not fair.

"Then where is the captain?" I asked, attempting to mock her. That man couldn't be the nice guy he was pretending to be. He just couldn't. I refuse to accept that as the truth, because to acknowledge that would to be acknowledging that I failed to incapacitate the real captain and he was probably already reporting back to Uncle.

"Probably on his way to find Uncle, Willow, and you know what else? Our ship is _destroyed_ and it will take an entire _year_ to get a new one." She pinched the bridge of her nose and I could see how uncomfortable the blue haired man was quickly becoming. "So, you know what? You better hope to _hell_ that we figure out a way to get out of here before one of these wonderful towns people becomes another _Claire."_ It was clear that the way I was acting wasn't the only thing she was angry about. I had broken our promise and didn't jump off the ship in time, but I couldn't risk the Captain getting away from us.

Her comment about Claire was a cheap shot on her part, but she was right. We- no, I- have to find a way to stop that soldier from making contact with Uncle and telling him our location, but it was still hard to focus on that right now. _Claire…You stupid, stupid girl! You could have come with us; you didn't have to die._ The cold, dead look in Claire's blue eyes will forever be scorched into my memories, just as the look of my many other friends who died in almost the same way. _I'm so tired of this…I just live in peace. I want to grow up not having to fight for my life…and I want friends who won't die and I want a real family. There are so many things that I want…Emery reminds me all the time that it's impossible…_I swung my legs of the edge of the bed, causing Vishnal to become even more of a sputtering mess than he already was.

"That was a cheap shot and you know it!" I growled at her, but she just continued to stare me down. Obviously, she knew what she was implying and didn't give a shit about it. Claire was just another person who died, to her. Yeah, they were friends, but she wasn't nearly as close to Claire as I was. I clenched my fists and stared at the tiled floor with tears brimming at the edges of my eyes. Emery is always trying to be this badass with an I-don't-have-to-answer-to-you kind of attitude. She acts like she doesn't care about anything, but that's not true.

"You _let _that captain jump through the gate. You _wanted_ to get revenge for Claire, but you failed and now you've put everyone here in danger." Esmeralda snapped at me, grabbing my chin roughly and forcing me to look her in the eyes. Vishnal, the man who was sitting next to my sister, kept glancing between us, trying to figure out if he should intervene or not. In the end, he decided not to and let whatever situation was about to occur play out. "You could have shut the gate." Emery shook her head disappointedly and let go of my face. _What does she know? She saw the situation and knew what was going to happen. She knows that this isn't my fault and I didn't have time to shut the gate…otherwise she wouldn't have jumped…right? Besides, now we don't have to run. Every time Uncle's soldiers have found us, we've ran out of town, but now, since we don't have an airship, we don't have to. We can stay and fight just like I've always wanted to do. So what if other people get killed in the process? It's a small price to pay for the many others who have died for our freedom. As long as we keep running, there will always be more and more people who die trying to protect us for whatever their reasons._

"Whatever." I scoffed in an attempt to push her accusations out of my head. Esmeralda sighed and glanced at the clock in the corner of the room,

"Well, I have to get back to work. I had to take my break early for you, and I don't have time to bring you up to speed on things." She stood up and patted the blue haired man on the head, "Like I mentioned before, this is Vishnal. He's kindly agreed to take care of you while I work, so please be nice. Also, try not to do anything stupid. Your body is still healing." I rolled my eyes at her and agreed to do what she asked. She leaned down to kiss my forehead and then quickly left. Now it was just me and Vishnal. I smirked slightly at him and he squirmed a bit under my gaze. _Well, he seems to be a little freaked out. I wonder why…Oh yeah. I think I tried to kill him._

"P-please don't try and kill me!" He stuttered, "Princess Frey and Esmeralda have ordered me to take care of you while they're working." He explained quickly and I sighed heavily.

"I'm sorry for threatening you." I looked away and he cleared his throat, trying to regain his composure. "I'm sure you already know my name, but I like to have formal introductions." Vishnal nodded his head,

"My name is Vishnal, as you've been told twice before; I was told to come here and keep an eye on you." We shook hands,

"I am, of course, the one and only Willow." I flipped my long, black hair over my shoulder and smiled slightly. There was a long, uncomfortable silence before I finally decided to say something else. "If it's not too much to ask, do you happen to know where my clothes are?" I tugged slightly at the sleeves of my hospital gown. It was a bit scratchy and the same shade of teal that I despised. Esmeralda wears teal, not me. I'm more of a purple kind of person, but that's not really important. At this point, I didn't care what color I was wearing, as long as it wasn't this stupid gown.

"Ah, your sister mentioned that you would want to change as soon as possible." He grabbed a sack that was sitting on the floor full of clothes and handed them to me. "She packed these for you."

It didn't take me get dressed and ready; I was restless from being in that clinic and wanted to leave as soon as possible. Even if I was passed out for most of the time being there, it wasn't a place that I wanted to stay in for very long. Clinics just make me feel uneasy. Dr. Jones signed off on my release form, or however they do things here, and made sure to tell me to be 'extra careful' and to call him if I need anything. He was nice enough to give me some burn cream to help with the pain and scarring as well, even though I didn't really need any. I already had a fairly decent amount of scars on my body, so a few more wouldn't have bothered me too much. Though, I thanked him repeatedly for the scarring ointment to apply to the still healing gash on my forehead. Apparently when the airship crashed I was thrown into the cabin and hurt myself. I'm still trying to figure out what I hit my head on, but it gave me an awful headache and probably a concussion.

As Vishnal led me outside, I was blinded once again by a bright light. Of course, it was the sun, but it was still difficult to adjust to after being asleep and inside for so long. It's like when you've been inside for a long time in the winter and then you walk out and the snow and sun make it nearly impossible to see. Then you stumble around like a drunken person trying to get to wherever you need to go and look stupid in the process. Yeah, that was basically me right now. Vishnal grabbed my arm, making sure I didn't trip over myself, but I pushed it off. It's not like I wasn't grateful for him trying to help me, but I really didn't need it. My eyes will adjust soon enough, and I really don't need some random guy acting like my protector or babysitter. Nothing angered me more than when Esmeralda forces some guy to 'keep an eye on me' like I'm some child. She always does stuff like that, though. I get that she wants to protect me and keep me safe, but I'm not a kid and I don't need someone to watch me. She never realizes it, but I'm the one keeping things together. If I weren't around, it would be _her_ who would have problems. Not the other way around.

Vishnal and I decided that the most productive use of the rest of the day was to visit the various shops in town and introduce myself. I can't imagine my sister had already done this, but he told me it was a requirement by Frey. Apparently, my sister got us a room at the castle as long as we help out with the farm and other various errands. Vishnal said that the first place we should visit would be the bathhouse because I had an ungodly amount of ash (from the fire on the airship) on my body. It was disgusting, plus I smelt like a campfire. Lovely. Judging from all my injuries, and the shape I was told my airship was in, the fire must have been a really bad one. I wondered who or what put it out, but that's really not important. What's important now is that I find out what happened to the captain. He couldn't have gotten far.

"Okay, so this is Xiao Pai and her mother, Lin Fa…" Vishnal announced as we walked up to the counter of the bathhouse/inn. I smiled at the two beautiful women. Xiao Pai was rather short with cute silvery hair and a nice smile. She seemed really cool, but it didn't take long for me to notice how clumsy she was. Her personality was…charming. Lin Fa, her mother, was a bit taller with the same slivery hair only longer. She was also very kind, but where Xiao Pai was clumsy, Lin Fa was forgetful. I can only imagine what it's like here on a daily basis. I also had the opportunity to meet some of the travelers, but most of the permanent residents were out in the town.

The bath was nice, but it was also a little embarrassing. I had never been to a communal bath and was really nervous. It's not like I didn't know what to do…I just…I guess it wouldn't have been so bad if I knew the other girls in there with me…but…ah… When I tried to talk to Vishnal about my problems, he turned really red and got flustered. It was strange. He seemed as though he wasn't prepared to deal with my awkwardness and it probably didn't help that I didn't quite know how to articulate what was going. I think he misunderstood what I was trying to say... It was all really embarrassing and I really rather not disclose what the misunderstanding was or how he came to that conclusion... I'm making myself uncomfortable thinking about it again! _Ah…I guess it's just something I'll have to deal with for now. All I wanted to get across was that I'm a little self-conscious and wasn't exactly comfortable with a communal bath…but maybe I should word things differently next time. Or go when no one else is there. _

"Uhm, so, maybe it would be less awkward if we talked while we walked around." Vishnal interrupted my thoughts and I stopped myself from sighing. I nodded my head in agreement, "Can I ask you a few questions?" He asked me and I shrugged my shoulders; it seemed as though he was able to put the incident at the bathhouse behind him. Maybe I should follow suit…

"Sure."

"How did you make that fire back in the clinic? You know; the one you threatened to kill me with." Vishnal asked me curiously, and I looked over at the blue haired man in surprise. _I guess Esmeralda hasn't told anyone yet…That figures. She never tells anyone about our lives._

"Emery and I have been studying how to perform large amounts of elemental magic and certain abilities ever since we were little." I tried to explain, but I'm guessing that I failed. It's a hard concept to convey to people. We're not mages because we don't focus on a specific element or type of magic. I guess you could consider us witches, but that's so clichéd. Whenever people think about that, they imagine spell books, potions, wands, and dark-scary-ugly people. In my personal opinion, Esmeralda and I are just people who can do magic. It's not a huge part of our lives; actually, it's more like something we've been running from. It's something we try to hide. Well, mostly Esmeralda tries to run and hide from it. I try to embrace it because it's who I am. Magic has always been a way of life for us, and if I try to ignore that part of me, it's like I'm not being true to myself.

"Are you an Earthmate? Or a witch?" Vishnal asked next and I ran my hands through my hair. _An Earthmate? That term seems familiar, but I don't think that's what we are either._

"Neither, but if you must classify us, I guess we're a type of witch." I stared up at the sky as we continued to walk around town. Surely we'd seem most of the buildings by now, but we were still walking. Vishnal forced me to enter each and every building, house, shop, and restaurant for formal introductions. It was exhausting, but everyone seemed to be nice.

"Ah, I have one more question." He announced and I gave him the okay to ask, "Why didn't Esmeralda tell anyone about your…powers?" I thought about it before I gave him my answer. It was crucial that I worded this correctly, because I didn't want to make my sister out to be a bad person, nor did I want her to seem stuck-up. She is my only living relative, and I love her, after all.

"Emery and I have many conflicting ideas about how we should live our lives. Where I want to stay and fight, she wants to run. I am proud of my abilities, but she is ashamed of them." I explained and he nodded and smiled reassuringly at me.

"I can tell. Oh! I mean that you and your sister are different." Vishnal laughed a bit, "You are friendlier, but Esmeralda seems to be very reserved. I hope she finds someone here she can open up to." Vishnal's words caught me off guard. There were very few people who said that after first meeting Emery. They never liked her much when we first arrived to different towns. It had something to do with her attitude and how she never wants to socialize or make friends. That's just who she is. While she's trying to protect people from getting hurt, she is also protecting herself. Seeing our friends die all the time can take its toll on a person, and I think that she's had enough of that. I smiled at him a bit and then remembered something important. _Ah, I meant to ask him if we could go to the airship. It's really important that I figure out what happened to the captain. If he makes it back to Uncle, then everyone here would be in danger already, and since we don't have an airship, we might be forced to fight back. Which is what I've wanted all along, but I don't think this is the right time for that._

"Vishnal, can we go to the airship? I need to check for some things." I asked my babysitter, pulling slightly at the sleeve of his jacket like a child. Vishnal glanced at me slightly and sighed,

"Your sister gave me strict instructions to not let you leave town." I pouted at him and he still wouldn't give in. It was evening by now and things were slowing down a bit, "Ah, here is our last stop: the general store." Vishnal smiled at me as we entered the small store. I was surprised to see my sister in there talking to the young man running the counter. He had bright red hair with shiny grey eyes and…_pointy ears_…Is he an elf? _Maybe, but maybe not. His appearance makes it hard to judge, but for now I'll just assume he's an elf. There are so many places I've been and all the creatures such as elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins and the like all look different depending on the realm and culture. Ugh. If he's an elf, then that means we've stumbled back into a realm similar to our home. One filled with magic, monsters, and sword fighting. I guess sometimes I missed this stuff, but I can't say that a place like Mineral Town wasn't a nice break. There were no monsters trying to kill us and it took our Uncle a fairly long time to find us. The worst weapon they had was a sickle, and even then that wouldn't do too much damage. I don't think so, at least._ Esmeralda was leaning in close to the man, obviously meaning for the conversation to be private.

"Esmeralda," I interrupted her and she turned around slowly. She was still trying to be mad at me, but she can never stay like that for long. I smirked at her, "what are _you_ doing here?" I teasingly asked her, but she is always so oblivious to things and didn't quite catch my accusing tone of voice.

"Oh, I'm just helping Doug think of ways to make Fr-" Doug, the redhead, quickly leaned over the counter and covered her mouth. His face was a bit flustered, so whatever my sister was about to announce was probably really important or really embarrassing. Or both.

"Friends. Ways to make friends." He laughed nervously and I raised my eyebrows at him, _I'm sure that's what you're talking about…Whatever. Emery will tell me later. _Esmeralda shook his hand off her face, clearly annoyed. Though, I couldn't decide if it was at 'Doug' or at me. Probably me. She's always mad at me, even for little things.

"Anyways," She shot a glare at Doug, who was still leaning way to far over the counter to be considered normal, "I should be the one asking you that question." I rolled my eyes and casually walked over to a stand with lots of fruits and vegetables.

"Vishnal is showing me around town, is there something wrong with that?" I asked, picking up an apple and inspecting it in an attempt to avoid eye contact with my sister. It was obvious where the conversation was about to go, and I wanted to prolong it as long as possible. She was probably going to yell at me some more for not jumping off the airship when I should have or letting the captain get away or threatening to kill the butler…little things like that. No, I take that back. Esmeralda tries to avoid scolding me in front of other people, but she slipped up at the clinic and let her anger get the best of her. The tension between us was thick and the two men in the room with us didn't know just how to react. Changing the subject would be the best way to avoid any more conflict. "So what Elven Kingdom do you belong to?" I asked Doug bluntly in an attempt to change the subject; hopefully, this would make Emery forget how angry she was with me. Doug looked at me in surprise and Esmeralda gave me a disapproving look, before studying his pointy ears. They were mostly hidden by his hair, but you can't hide anything from me and usually when I want to know information, I just outright ask for it. I don't really care for formalities as much as my sister does. She would try to get to know the person or ask someone else, but that's just not who I am. I'm a blunt, truthful kind of person; I don't beat around the bush and I don't sugar coat things.

"I'm not an elf, I'm a dwarf…" He gave me one of those I-can't-believe-you-asked-me-that kinds of looks. Dumbfounded by his answer, Emery and I stared at him, mouth slightly agape in disbelief. _A dwarf? Are you serious? He's a dwarf? But…he's…so pretty looking! The dwarves back home would have eaten him alive! They would crush his bones just by shaking his hands! I guess…we've traveled to so many places we forget that there are so many different cultures and life styles. Still…this is too funny._ Vishnal laughed nervously to break the silence while my sister and I exchanged a quick glance before cracking up laughing. Leaning onto Emery for support, I began to gasp for air between giggles. "What's so funny?" Doug demanded, causing us to laugh even harder. Whatever beef my sister had with me had been forgotten as the tension between us melted away.

"You're really…pretty to be a dwarf." I laughed, wiping a few tears from my eyes. "I've never seen a dwarf who was so mild mannered and clean shaven!" Esmeralda nodded at this,

"Where we come from, the dwarves are a bit rougher around the edges. They're boisterous, obnoxious, and grimy. Not…whatever breed you are." She explained unkindly, I guess _both_ us are really honest sometimes. Doug looked away in annoyance and began to ignore us. "Of course, that must work out in your favor. I don't think Frey would even think about dating the dwarves from back home." Emery chuckled a bit while Vishnal widened his eyes suddenly. Doug whirled around in a slight panic and I stood there dumbly, ignorant to whatever my sister just implied.

"So you're helping Doug win Frey over?" Vishnal ask, voice wavering ever so slightly. I furrowed my brow and glanced between the three. _Clearly I've missed something._ Esmeralda nodded while Doug shook his head 'no'. _Why is everyone acting so weirdly all of a sudden?_

"I owe him a favor." My sister replied plainly, shrugging her shoulders in indifference. Doug smacked his forehead lightly, amazed by how blunt and obvious my sister could be, and all at once everything began to click. _Oh, so we must have walked in on my sister giving relationship advice…wait. My sister was giving __**relationship**__ advice?_

"Emery, you don't know anything about relationships." I smirked out of humor and glanced at Doug who looked like he was going to die from embarrassment. Esmeralda gave me her famous death stares. She had literally no emotion on her face, which can be way scarier than her worst glares. This is why we don't make very many friends; she's so hard to read, no one ever knows if she's happy, angry, sad, or whatever. Plus it's just creepy. Though, Emery always says she never wants to make friends anyways. She never tries, either, so it's curious as to why she's helping this pretty-boy-dwarf. "What did she suggest you do? Go to lunch in her place?" I jokingly asked Doug, who nodded slightly.

"I told her it was lame." He frowned at my sister and I had to cover my mouth to keep myself from laughing again.

"Are you serious?" I rolled my eyes at my sister, "Why don't you just do a simple date thing. Ask her to go out for dinner, but not somewhere cliché like a restaurant or a picnic by a lake or river." I sighed flicking my messy bangs out of my eyes. My sister tries to make things so complicated sometimes. Esmeralda tilted her head thoughtfully,

"Actually, that's a great idea." She smiled slightly at me and turned back to Doug to start making plans. I grabbed Vishnal's hand and made him leave with me. If we had stayed much longer, my sister would have made us help her make plans for the little date, and that was something I did _not_ want to do. She gets so excited about the weirdest things, and I just don't know how to deal with it sometimes.

Vishnal and I walked back to the plaza, well, that's what he told me it was anyways. It was pretty much the center of town and had a gigantic castle in the middle. I stared up at it in awe as he explained that's where we would be living. Apparently, Vishnal was a butler there. Which made so much more sense because I was still confused as to why my sister and her new friend had a person they could just order to watch me. _Wait…doesn't that technically mean he's __**my**__ butler too? _

"Hey, since you're basically my butler, can't I just order you to take me to my airship?" I asked innocently and he shook his head.

"I'm _Frey's_ butler, not yours." He replied and I rolled my eyes at him,

"Okay, well, basically what I'm saying here is that I'm going to go find it with or without you. If you don't come with me, and I get hurt, you'll have my sister to explain to. You can't actually _stop_ me from finding that ship." I smirked at him and began to walk to the gate of the town. Vishnal stood there for a few seconds before running to catch up to me.

"I-I'll do it! I'll take you, but only because I was asked to look out for you by Frey. Just…Please be careful." He sighed in annoyance as we finally left town. By this time, I was starting to notice a pattern in Vishnal's behavior. He was quite a nervous fellow, but often did what he was supposed to. When I unintentionally made things uncomfortable at the bathhouse (you really don't need to know details about that one) he forced himself to keep calm in order to deal with me. It was really impressive, actually. Most people give up the moment I start to show how weird I am. Not Vishnal, though. He would just say something about his butler duties and get on with it. I'm also the kind of person that likes to get a rise out of people, and while I can get one out of Vishnal, he has so far proved that he doesn't let him affect him as much. Even though I had threatened to kill him, he still forced himself to stick around me. Clearly, he is a bit mental, but aren't we all?

We continued out on our journey to a place Vishnal said was the center of a forest. There were tons of various monsters along the way, but they were all low level ones. I took them out quite easily; even without my dual blades…_wait_…

"Did I have any swords with me when they brought me in?" I asked my babysitter, who was frantically looking about for any monsters that could ambush us. He caught up to walk beside me just as we entered the forest.

"I don't think so, but I wasn't there so I wouldn't really know." He replied thoughtfully, actually trying to answer my question. _I must have dropped them on the ship or something…_ I sighed slightly and shook my head. As we continued to fight our way through the forest, Vishnal would talk a bit about being a butler and about his dreams. I was starting to notice he was really talkative, even though we'd just met. He also talked about that Frey girl…a lot. It was clear that he really admired her for her hard work, but it also felt like there was something else…maybe like he had a crush on her or something, but I'm not the type of person to pry. Though, it would explain why he got so quite when my sister mentioned she was trying to set her up with that weirdo-dwarf. I wonder what type of person she really was to have two radically different people like her. Even if it was such a small town, she must be a really special person. My sister didn't really mention her all that much. Though, Vishnal told me she's the princess. I can only imagine that she's some beautiful girl that has the world at her feet, but I didn't want to make any harsh judgments before meeting her myself. I would be living with her, after all.

"You're different from you sister," Vishnal commented suddenly after we had extensively talked about his job as being a butler and how it was his dream to be the best butler ever or something to that extent. We had touched on this subject slightly before, but it must be becoming more apparent. I glanced at him slightly and sighed,

"I know."

"Why is that? I haven't known your sister much longer than I have you, but you have already told me more about yourself than your sister has.

"Esmeralda let's our past define her, I do not." I stated plainly. There wasn't much else to say other than that. My sister never lets herself get close to people because she's afraid to lose them. I, however, cannot live like that. It's a problem I have. I let people get to close to me, even though I know how dangerous that can be. Even though I know they could die just from knowing me, I still let people into my life. And it's easy for me to do, too. Making friends has never been a difficult task for me, and it's even more obvious just from the way Vishnal and I were talking. He was talking to me as if he's known me his whole life. Emery always tells me I need to be careful, but she doesn't understand. I'm not sure if I even understand myself. Being alone is hard. Shutting people out of my life is hard. Esmeralda can do it without even batting an eye, but for some reason I can't.

The airship finally came into view as we entered a clearing. I could feel another presence there with us, and it was a very ominous one. At first I assumed that it was the captain. Maybe he was watching for us, but I realized quickly that it wasn't him. I heard a cracking that sounded like giant branches falling and turned to my right and saw it. A freaking murderous apple tree.

"W-what the _hell?!"_ I screamed as it lunged at us and began to throw giant apples. _Of course, the airship __**had**__ to land in the Apple Tree Monster's hideout. What did I do in my past life to deserve this kind of luck?_ Quickly, I started attack the tree with various elemental spells whilst protecting Vishnal, who was insisting on helping me. "Just stay back!" I begged him as I continued to attack the tree. It didn't take too long before it started to really go berserk and I had to work fast before something bad happened. Vishnal shouted words of encouragement on the side, but I couldn't hear him very well. All that I was focusing on was the battle before me. This is how I always get. Consumed in my thoughts and anticipating what the enemy will do next. It was a little more difficult with a monster, but it's all the same to me. A fight is a fight and you have to do your best no matter what because you never know what you might lose in the end.

Finally, I took out the stupid tree and sunk to my knees panting. The magic I had to perform took a toll on my not fully healed body and weakened me considerably. How annoying. _I mustn't let that guy know how much energy this took…He'll surly tell my sister. And he'd probably regret taking me out here and never let me do anything fun ever again._ I pulled myself up and wiped the sweat from my forehead before giving him a huge smile.

"Let's get on that ship, okay?" I laughed and grabbed his arm once again and dragged him up the wreckage of was I used to call a home. Almost everything was destroyed and the inside of the cabin was completely cleaned out. _Okay, so someone must have gotten our stuff._ I moved some of the things that were left behind around and found my two swords broken on the floor. _You've got to be kidding me._ Looking around some more, I attempted to see if the captain was still somewhere on the ship. I checked everywhere: in the cabin, on deck, around the airship, etc. but I couldn't find him anywhere. _This can't be good…_

"So, did we come here to find that guy you confused me for?" Vishnal asked as he inspected the broken plates on the floor. I sighed and nodded my head,

"He's not here."

"What are you going to do about it? Do we need to inform the princess?" He started to panic slightly, connecting the dots and realizing that the captain wasn't someone nice. I shook my head and grabbed him by the shoulders,

"Listen to me. You can't tell anyone about this. I will deal with my sister, but you can't let anyone know until I've convinced her about what we need to do." I made him look me in the eyes and swear he wouldn't tell anyone. Keeping secrets and forcing new friends to keep secrets surely had to be an omen that something bad was going to happen. With the luck we've had so far, we wouldn't make it to the year mark to get the airship, which means we won't be able to run away this time. While I've always been opposed to running away, I wasn't sure if this was the time or place for that. Though, it looked as if we weren't going to have much of a choice. "Trust me, please, I'm begging you. If you tell the princess, I'm sure we'll get kicked out, with good reasoning. We're dangerous people, but we have nowhere else to go." Vishnal nodded reluctantly and I released my death grip on his shoulders.

"I'll do my best," He whispered quietly and I gave him a weak smile as he grabbed my hand, "Let's go home." It turns out that Vishnal had taught himself a few spells and used one to transport us back to the entrance of town. The sun had set when we finally got to the castle and Emery was waiting for us with Frey. Neither of them looked too happy, and I glanced at Vishnal to see what we should do.

"We went out for a walk." He smiled sincerely at them and that was all they needed to hear from him. Vishnal left shortly after that and my sister and I went to our rooms for a little chat. I wanted to tell her about not being able to find the captain, but for some reason I held back and didn't tell her what we were really doing out in the woods…I don't know why. She has the right to know and we need to make the decision soon, before they find us again, but I just couldn't bring myself to tell her yet.

* * *

It was sometime after Willow and Vishnal left that the Captain decided to finally emerge from his hiding place. For the past few days he had been regaining his strength by living off the land and chilling out among the wreckage of the sisters' airship. He didn't know exactly where he was, but he knew that somehow the girls had managed to bring them back into his world: the world of monsters, swords, and magic. It felt good to be back, too, and with the knowledge of where the girls were hiding out, surly the king would promote him to more than just a captain. However, that wasn't exactly what he was after. In fact, being a captain and acceding in the higher ranks wasn't even important to him. No, the only thing that mattered was getting revenge on the sisters.

What did they ever do to him? That's a frequently asked question of his men. There was never a good answer he could give them, but he knew deep in his heart why he harbored so much hatred. He knew why he wanted to skin them alive and feed them to the wolves. He knew why. If the sisters were never born, he'd still have his own. If they had never taught her magic and how to fight, she would have never even though of becoming a kind of special soldier for the king. He would still have her around, cooking, laughing, smiling; she would still have a future. Now she's gone and he can't do anything about it. He'll never see her again, and he doesn't even know what happened. There isn't a body to lay to rest, and for that reason, he _must_ dispose of those girls.

All of them had been friends at one time. Emery, Willow, him and his sister, were the best of friends at one point. Now, it's like they don't even remember. If the Captain revealed his identity to Willow after he jumped onto the ship, she wouldn't recognize him. She would still try to kill him, but then again, he would still try to kill her.

* * *

**Wow, this chapter took a lot of energy out of me. I was so focused on making it as perfect as possible...I guess, I was just going by the motto "If I'm not happy with it, how could anyone be happy with it?" I didn't want to post this until I was absolutely sure that everything was written exactly how I wanted it and that people could understand what I was wanting them to understand. Also, I took so huge risks when I wrote this and it took me at least three or four days to contemplate whether or not I was making the right decisions. For example, the town that Emery and Willow fled in the beginning was based off of the Harvest Moon game More Friends of Mineral Town. So was Claire. This was a risk because I wasn't sure if anyone would understand what they were talking about when they mentioned the town. The other risk I took was comparing the dwarves, elves, and orcs to the ones in The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings nonsense. I wanted it to just be a funny scene, and I thought to myself that it was completely possible for the sisters to encounter creatures that looked entirely different from the Rune Factory ones. Let's face it, Doug isn't anything like the dwarves from The Hobbit, and I thought it was funny to compare him to them. Then again, I have a strange sense of humor. There were also several scenes where Willow just seems to go on and on and there is just a lot happening...I understand it can be boring, but there are reasons I write the way I do. **

**Anyways, I thank everyone for their time and support while writing this story. It really means a lot to me, and I'm happy people enjoy it! The next few chapters wont be this dense, I promise. there will probably be some more happy, fun filler chapters that have less to do with the plot and more to character development and relationship development. If you have time, I'd love to hear everyone's opinions! Please review, thank you! :)**


	6. Last Night

**I'm so sorry this took so long, but things have started to get really busy around here. I've got two really important essays that I have to write soon and then I have to prepare for graduation and oh my gosh everything is happening this month. Anyways, it felt like I was busy all the time and when I did finally have time to write, I didn't feel like it. This caused me to go into a mini writer's block, but do not worry! I suffered through it, and now we have this...chapter. I really don't know what to say about this one, except for it's not really what I wanted, but I needed to get it done so I can move on to more interesting things. I feel like I'm rushing in making character's relationships develop too fast, but I don't know. Obviously no one is telling anyone their deepest secrets or professing their love for each other yet, so I think I'm doing okay. Also, I'm really bad at writing filler chapters anyways, so I feel like this was a doubly whammy in awful writing. (I have a cute and funny idea for next chapter, but if anyone has any suggestions for fillers, I'll gladly listen. Just as long as it doesn't interfere with the personal relationships I'm trying to build between characters) Also I'm really sorry if this chapter has more mistakes than normal. **

**Anyways, enough rambling, here's the latest chapter! I hope you enjoy, despite all my issues! Please don't forget to review, favorite, follow, or whatever you care to do! I love it when I see people are enjoying my story! Oh yeah, thanks for all the previous support, as well! I'm so grateful for all the wonderful things everyone has said! Please continue to enjoy~**

Last Night

_I cannot believe I actually let Frey drag me into this. Dinner? With everyone? With the sisters? Is she serious? As if we could all actually get along._ I sighed heavily as I began to lock up the general store, but not before letting Granny Blossom know where I'm going. _It's not as if I don't like Emery and Willow; they just know how to make things uncomfortable._ I sighed heavily and exited the store. The sun was just setting over Selphia, and a light breeze was blowing thousands of cherry blossom petals around. I breathed in the sweet scent and began my journey to the castle where I would be having a meal, prepared by _Vishnal_ and _Willow_, with my best friend: Frey, a horse (Dylas), and a psychopath. Seriously, though, is Frey trying to get all of us killed? Last time Vishnal cooked something, I had food poisoning for a week. A WEEK. Imagine this: gut wrenching pain in your stomach, churning your guts in the most awful kind of way, and hardly being able to leave the bathroom. If you were lucky enough to stop the contents of your stomach from leaving your body, maybe, just _maybe_, you'd be able to sleep in your bed. Though, your body would shake uncontrollably the entire time from being cold, all the while having a fever of hundred and five. The thought of going through _that_ again is making me seriously reconsider spending the evening with all of them. However, I will not back down. It's the perfect opportunity to have some quality time with Frey, and get direct relationship building advice from Esmeralda at the same time! _That is, Emery will only help if she's in a good mood, which I'm finding out all too quickly, that is a rare occasion._

I ran a hand through my messy red hair in exasperation at the thought of Emery _not_ being in a good mood. Despite only knowing her for a short amount of time, everyone is realizing all too soon that nine times out of ten she isn't a pleasant person to be around. Her façade tricked us when we all first met her. It was all _"Oh yes, my name is Esmeralda, it's a pleasure to meet you. I hope you can find it in your hearts to welcome my sister and I into your city!"_ and now it's more like _"…" _with the occasional, this one is my favorite, _"What in the __**hell**__ are __**you**__ looking at?"_ Yeah, she doesn't have any boundaries. Though, most of the time she is just silent, and if someone upsets her, she'll just glare at them and that's all. Every day, when she comes in on her break, she scares away at least one of my customers, but not on purpose though, I don't think so anyways. Emery is just one of those people that have a scary demeanor, and it's not like she can help it at all. She may be terribly short, but she has that "don't mess with me" attitude. Honestly, sometimes she even scares _me._ Frey and her sister seem to be the only people that can put her in her place.

"Doug, you finally made it!" A high pitched, sweet voice laughed to my right as I entered Frey's room. Everyone was already gathered at the table in the middle of the room, and Frey was messing around with some giant box in the corner directly to the right of the doorway. She was knelt down, tongue sticking slightly out the corner of her mouth, and was focusing intently on it, her hair falling just a bit in front of her face. It was quite cute. She was quite cute. I smiled and put my hand on the back of my neck in embarrassment,

"Yeah, there were a lot of travelers needing stuff from the general store today for some reason. We were kind of busy, but Granny let me close up early." I laughed a bit and went over to the round table where everyone was sitting. I had only been in Frey's personal part of the castle once or twice before, so I was trying not to stare too much at everything. The table we were sitting at had an elegant, blue table cloth with some sort of white flower stitched into it. I sat to the left of Emery, next to the other opened seat, where Frey would be sitting. Willow was sitting on the other side of Emery, then Vishnal, Dylas, and the empty seat where Frey would be. Taking in my surroundings, I noticed several details about the room that I missed the other day when I walked Emery here to set up her temporary home. Several magic books were haphazardly thrown about on an old, droopy looking bookshelf in the corner near her bed with papers and bookmarkers sticking out in various places. Next to that was a calendar, a nightstand with a diary set on top, and then her bed which had two stuffed animals at the foot of it. There were some clothes shoved underneath, as though someone ran out of time cleaning their room. I smiled slightly at the fakeness of the cleanliness. Emery sighed heavily as a light, bubbly kind of song began to play from the corner Frey was still crouched in.

"Do you have anything better than this?" She asked, a hint of annoyance dancing around the edges of her voice. Willow swung her arm out from her side, and a light smack of skin could be heard. I braced myself for the earful we were surly about to hear, but Emery barely reacted. It was as if it were the most normal thing for her sister to do to her.

"Try and be a bit more pleasant, please, sister dearest." Willow dramatically drawled out, rubbing her temples slightly, and then, making eye contact with Dylas, smiled slightly, "We're trying to make friends, remember?" Still, Emery neither replied nor reacted to her sister. Instead, she lifted the tiny cup of tea in front of her to her small, pouty lips, and took a sip.

"I think the music is fine." Dylas said dryly, rolling his eyes at the two sisters, and Vishnal gave him a nervous sideways glance. Willow raised her eyebrows, looking at her sister, who was staring intently at her cup of tea. Frey stood up from the music box and began to walk back over, smiling awkwardly at me before taking her seat.

"Well, I'm glad everyone could make it!" She laughed nervously and I heard Emery suck in a deep breath of air, squeezing her eyes shut. "Is something wrong?" Frey asked her, picking up her tea, while Emery smirked slightly back,

"Willow told me if I feel the need to say something sarcastic, rude, ignorant, or otherwise just plain mean, I should take a deep breath and count to ten. So I counted to ten." Another skin on skin contact was heard and this time Emery flinched, just slightly, though. Willow laughed, a little too loudly,

"Kidding! She's. Just. Kidding." Frey set her cup down, a little harsher than normal, as if her depth perception had been off and the table was closer than she thought. "Hey, is this one of the records I let you borrow, Frey? This song sounds familiar…" Willow closed her eyes as she tipped her head back. "It brings back good memories." She whispered, to no one in particular, and Emery perked up a bit. Her face was pinker than normal, though no one else seemed to notice, as she grasped at something silver hanging down from her neck. _Is that the locket I found the other day?_

"No, I bought it from one of the shop owners today. He said that he heard you two had travelled a lot and figured this might remind you of your home." Frey rubbed her chin slightly in amusement to the girls' reactions. It was a softer, with a folk-y kind of beat to it, guitar and all, and the man singing had a deep, soothing voice. Emery and Willow stared off into space while we all sat and listened to the music. I don't listen to much music, but this was different from all the other stuff I've heard before. Most of the time, it's strictly instrumental and hardly has any lyrics, but this was…a nice change. "I don't know why, but this…sounds familiar to me as well." Willow's eyes snapped open, while Dylas, Vishnal, and I leaned in closer for more information. It's been three years, but it seems like it was just yesterday when Frey arrived here, in basically the same way as Emery and Willow. Though, she lost all of her memories, and hasn't been able to recover anything from her past since then. Dr. Jones said it would all come back eventually, but so far, nothing has. It's interesting, to me, that she finds this song to be so…

"I sing it sometimes." Emery interjected, suddenly, and without warning, eyeballing Frey in a very unusual way. Willow gave her a nervous, sideways glance, before nodding along with her. "You probably recognize the melody." She explained, almost a little harshly. Frey thought this over, causing the three of us guys to become even more interested, _is she getting her memories back? Why is Emery getting so defensive?_

"No, I've definitely heard this song before." She stood up and smiled at us, and a loud beeping went off…something like a… "Shit! The food! Willow, did you not set a timer?" Frey pushed her chair back roughly as she stood up, slamming her hands on the table, almost knocking over my tea. Willow turned a bit pink as she threw an arm back behind her head in embarrassment.

"Uh…I guess I forgot?" She laughed a bit, but Frey just shook her head in frustration and left for the kitchen to try and salvage what she could. Emery sat up straighter just as Frey was out of sight and grabbed my arm viciously, a fire blazing behind her eyes,

"Are you going to make your move or not?" She asked, not bothering to lower her voice,

"W-what?" I shook her arm off, laughing nervously, hoping Vishnal and Dylas didn't hear her, but it was too late. _Why does she have to be so blunt about everything? Why does she always have to start in on me about this crap? Because I saved her life? Because she feels like she owes me? Please, I didn't save her life. I wasn't even trying. All I wanted was to protect Frey, and now I have a psychopath on my hands who thinks it's okay to purposely set up situations between me and my best friend and who always barges into my general store on her lunch break and hardly ever talks but when she does she never shuts up and…and…oh nonononononono please stop!_ They were both eyeing me uneasily across the table, but I didn't even have time to be embarrassed, because Emery doesn't waste anytime getting to the point of things,

"_Don't play stupid."_ Emery hissed under her breath, looking me in the eyes, and then checking the kitchen door to make sure Frey wasn't going to walk through. "You have to make a move or else you're going to lose her to someo-" She started in on her usual tangent, but was interrupted by Dylas slamming his fist on the table, the look of murder in his eyes. Emery stopped what she was doing, mouth half agape, still clutching my arm, and turned her head to look back at him.

"Don't you touch her, Dwarf." He seethed through gritted teeth, trying to intimidate me. _Whoaaaa! Whoa, whoa, whoa, what have I done to him? Oh, don't tell me he also…No…no, that couldn't be. But, they've seemed pretty friendly lately I guess…but…that doesn't mean he…well, she couldn't possible return his feelings…could she?_

"Oh, I'm sorry; do you have a monopoly over Frey or something?" Emery stood up, leaning as far across the table as she could, even for being as short as she is, trying to get in Dylas' face. _Oh god…oh my god…Frey hurry up and get back out here…_Dylas crossed his arms and leaned in to get in her face as well, but didn't say anything, and before we knew it, we were all witnessing one of the greatest staring contests to have ever occurred. The two were both terrifying, but if I had to choose, Emery was definitely scarier. One of the roughest, toughest girls I've had the _pleasure_ of meeting. Sure, Forte could be scary, but even she has a soft side, and the same goes with Dylas. He's actually warmed up to people since that first year after Frey saved him. Dolce, on the other hand, is very cold, but she doesn't have the _temper_ that Emery does.

Thankfully, Frey finally came back, after what seemed forever, but was in reality only ten or fifteen minutes. She didn't notice, or pretended not to notice, the terrifying staring contest that was going on at the table. Dylas was the first to retreat to his original position: leaning back in his chair, arms crossed, and a slight scowl across his brow. Emery smirked, taking it as a victory, and also leaned back in her chair as Frey set down a pan of some kind of casserole. Everyone, except for Emery and Frey, grimaced in disgust as Frey began to cut the supposed to be spongy, evil, looking thing, and set it upon each of our plates.

"Looks delicious, Willow, what did you two make?" Emery asked, in a monotone voice, so none of us could tell if she was being serious or not, being the first to cut in and take a bit of the weird food. The taste of it didn't seem to faze her at all, and Willow smiled up at her meekly.

"Cheese casserole…I found mom's old recipe book and I thought it would be interesting to make. Vishnal said he'd never had it before."

"Tastes wonderful. Glad it didn't turn into charcoal, this time." Emery said dryly, scanning the faces of everyone else at the table, as if to say 'take a bite, you dumbasses'. Frey was the first to take a huge bite, but she could hardly contain the pained look upon her face. Then Dylas and Vishnal both sucked in a huge breath and attempted to eat the dish, which, consequently, pressured me into doing the same. _How can something be salty, sweet, spicy at the same time all the while having the consistency of a rock? A freaking rock! No, a rock would taste better than this. At least it would have a gritty, earthy taste and not a multitude of tastes combined into one._

"I-I thought you said she knew how to cook?" Frey coughed, choking on a piece of the food. Emery nodded,

"She does, but she always forgets to set the timer and always burns or over cooks the food." She shrugged in the most casual way, like she couldn't be bothered with trying to get her sister to cook correctly- like she doesn't mind eating slabs of hardened food. "This is one of her better dishes." I stared at her in disbelief, _one of her better dishes?_ Frey choked again,

"How have you even survived?" She asked, eyes wide in concern.

"Very carefully." Emery replied in her usual dry way, and then offered to make something better for everyone to eat, seeing as we're not 'used to the unique cooking' of her sister. Frey reluctantly allowed her to do so, but warned her to not screw up, or else she'll never let either of the sisters _near_ the kitchen. "I told you, Willow knows how to cook. She's just careless." And that's how she left us. I think she was just looking for an excuse to be alone, though. It seems as though she doesn't really like being in large groups of people, considering how she's been acting all night: all angry, annoyed, and crazy. Whenever she comes into the general store on her break, she doesn't really talk much, unless it's to lecture me on confessing my feelings to Frey. Then again, I can't really be sure, because she is such a weird person. It's hard to pin down what she's really feeling or acting, then again, maybe it's just because I really don't care to pin down her feelings. She's an adult. She can take care of herself. I think. Probably.

It seemed like forever since Emery left to cook whatever she needed to, because we were all having so much fun hanging out. Frey and Willow were doing impressions of Emery, in the middle of the room, trying to see who had mastered her personality. They were a riot, and even had Dylas in stitches at one point.

"My name is Emery and I hate everything fun." Willow huffed, perfecting Emery's little scowl and crossed her arms. It was all so funny, but at the same time, it kind of felt weird to be making fun of someone I hardly knew. Even though both Willow and Frey were spot on with their impressions.

"No, it's more like: I don't want to get attached to anyone, because I never know when I'm going to have to leave them." Emery smirked, walking into the room with a plate of sweets, stopping just outside of the kitchen doorway. Frey stood up straighter and everyone ceased their laughing, except for Willow.

"Lighten up, we were just having fun." She giggled, slapping Frey slightly on the shoulder, "Right, Frey?"

"Y-yeah…" Frey nodded, and Emery rolled her eyes, starting toward the table, with a plate of sweets in her hand. _She sure knows how to take the fun out of things. We were all having a good time, too. Though, maybe she is hurt that it came at her expense?_

"O-oh! Let me help you with that!" Vishnal slid out from his chair, awkwardly stumbling over himself, trying to make it to where Emery was standing near the kitchen door. Clearly feeling guilty for lightly poking fun at her, he grabbed the plate, before Emery could stop him, and shouted in pain, dropping the muffins she had just baked. He didn't realize that the plate had just come out of the oven, "I-I'm s-sorry, a good butler knows when to help and when to not. I'm sorry." Vishnal continued to apologize profusely on his knees, trying to save the muffins from the dirty floor, not tending to his burnt hand.

"Stop apologizing, I'm not going to bite your head off." Emery grumbled, bending down to help, "Contrary to popular belief, I'm not that bad of a person. I don't think so." She sighed, and for the first time I saw her as a different person. Neither the overly zealous person I first met, nor the rough and tough girl I've gotten acquainted with this past week and a half. I've never had a problem with either of the two personalities she's presented, but it makes it hard to understand her thoughts and feelings, and I know that's the problem Frey has with her. Frey has always been good at making friends, and despite losing her memories, she somehow charmed everyone in town. Even I, during that time when I swore off having any close friends, found it hard to resist her. Her charismatic personality mixed with her ability to read body language made it impossible to hide your feelings, but Emery isn't like that. "If that's what you think, though, I won't make any attempts to change your mind." Emery grumbled, standing back up with the muffins back in place.

"How could we think anything else?" Frey demanded, scowling a bit at her, "You haven't opened up at all, and you're moody all the time." I saw Dylas nod slightly, and so did Emery. _Of course he's going to side with Frey, even though they were both making fun of Emery. Really, none of us have the right to be offended that she didn't find it as funny. If anything, the only person who should be upset is Emery._

"Why would I open up to someone who's already made up their mind to not trust me?" Emery replied coolly, letting her face harden like a stone. _I'm not sure what's worse; Emery's death stare and her blank, emotionless face are both terrifying in their own way._

"Ladies, ladies, we're trying to have a friendly get together. Let's not ruin it now," Willow waved her hand in a way to dismiss the argument, walking over to Vishnal and performing some kind of magic to heal his hand. She smiled at the three of them, then looked back at the table to where Dylas and I were still sitting, and led Vishnal back with her. Emery sucked in a breath, just as she had earlier that night, squeezing her eyes shut. After ten seconds or so, she too came back to the table, muffins and all.

I awoke the following morning with a pounding in my head, mouth dry, and still in my day clothes. _Dammit…I over slept, _the afternoon light was shining through the window and I could hear Granny Blossom doing something in the kitchen. _Why didn't she wake me up?_ It's Saturday now, but I still have a job to do. What if someone were to come in while I was off being lazy? I forced myself to get out of bed, a little too fast seeing as how my head immediately started spinning. In the kitchen, I went ot the sink to splash some water on my face. Granny asked me how the dinner went, and I thought about it. _We had fun…I think. _After the burnt food incident, and the dropping of the muffins, the night went much smoother. I also managed to get a little closer to Frey! No, literally, I scooted my chair closer to hers; our legs were touching under the table. We also all had a few heart to hearts and ended up having a great time, even more so after Frey reluctantly brought out some wine for us.

"_But this isn't the kind you drink, it's meant to be used in cooking" She whined, investigating the bottle Willow had found after she took everyone's dirty plates back into the kitchen. Hardly anyone in Selphia drinks for fun, and if they do, it's a very, very, rare occasion. Emery grabbed the purplish-blue bottle from her hands, "If you drink that, you're going to pass out from exhaustion!" Frey exclaimed as the moody girl twisted off the cork and lifted it to her lips, pausing slightly,_

"_I haven't had a good night sleep in ages." She smirked and then took a giant swig from the bottle. Dylas scrunched his face up in mild confusion and disgust,_

"_I don't think that's how you're supposed to drink that." He muttered under his breath, but Emery opted to not pay attention to his comment, passing the bottle over to me._

Now that I think about it, it was probably the wine that caused the night to go much easier. Frey and Emery didn't argue much after that, aside from a few debates they had. By midnight, Emery wouldn't shut up about how Frey reminded her of an old friend, and proceeded to drink even more than she should have. Frey started crying at one point from this, because of her frustration with her memory loss. We got an earful about that. She also wouldn't stop hanging on to me and telling me how much I meant to her. All in all, I had a pretty good time. I'm a little closer to Frey, Dylas, and Vishnal, due to having a heart to heart conversation with them, and I also learned a bit more about Emery and Willow's life. Though, it was Willow who told me most of the information. Emery didn't want to have much to do with it, and actually left halfway through to go to her room.

I sighed as I made a double lunch, knowing Emery would probably be downstairs waiting for me on her lunch break. She's such a weird girl, but I haven't seen her since she left in the middle of the heart to heart session last night. I don't even remember how we got started, but somehow we were sitting in the middle of Frey's floor talking and laughing and then Vishnal told a story. Then Doug told a story…and Frey **remembered** something…!

_We were all sitting in a circle on Frey's bedroom floor, because obviously the table didn't make sense to us, and it was much more comfortable down there. Frey was stretched out across Dylas and I, her head on his lap, legs across mine. Vishnal was sitting between Willow and Dylas, but Emery was slightly out of the circle, as if to imply interest yet disinterest at the same time. Or she just wasn't comfortable being in such close quarters. Either one was plausible at this point, but all of us were too tipsy to notice. In hindsight, maybe someone should have told her to get closer, though, it's hard to predict how she'd react to that._

"_I remember one time, as a prank, one of my little brothers decided it would be funny leave turnips everywhere. It got so bad that one time, as punishment, my parents forced all of us kids to eat them all so they wouldn't go to waste. Every. Single. Turnip. We ate turnips for a __**week**__. A WEEK. Only turnips. Nothing else." Vishnal shuddered in disgust while the girls giggled at his story. We were talking about traumatizing childhood events, and Vishnal had to go first. Of course it had something to do with turnips. "Okay, Dylas, it's your turn."_

"_Well I became a guardian. If that's not traumatizing, I don't know what is." He grumbled while Emery raised her eyebrows at him._

"_What's a guardian?" She asked and he shrugged his shoulders._

"_It's a long story." Emery nodded at this, taking the hint that he didn't want to talk about it. "Doug?" He asked me, purposely skipping over Frey, who sat up suddenly._

"_I-I think I remember something…can I tell it?" She asked, Dylas gave me a worried look and I just nodded in encouragement to her. __**She remembers something?**__ "Okay, well it's only a fragment, but I remember playing with three other kids once. I don't remember their names, but two of them were twins with blond hair and blue eyes…well the boy had purple eyes and the girl had blue. The other girl had black hair and pretty green eyes…anyways, we were all playing one day out in the forest behind the small village we lived in and found a river with a rope attached to a tree to swing over. The boy went first 'swwwoooossshhhh' over the river and the girl with wild black hair followed, and I remember the one with blond hair laughed nervously and asked me how I felt about the rope. I told her, 'it's a rope, and we're on an adventure!' and she said, 'but what if-' but I grabbed the rope and jumped without letting her finish and the rope snapped and I fell in. I almost drowned, I think, but someone pulled me out…that's all I remember." I could hardly pay attention to anyone else when Frey finished her story. I could only focus how strange that's the one memory she remembers and how happy and excited I was that she was getting her memories back, but no one else said anything. So I went, and I told my story of how one day I left and came back to find my village killed._

_So then it was Emery's turn, but she got up and left without saying anything else and Willow smiled a sad, knowing smile, and everything went on like nothing happened. Like Dylas never became a guardian, like Frey never got a memory back, like my family was never killed, and like Emery was too sad to say anything else. Nothing mattered. Nothing ever matters, but that's life, I guess. And maybe I'm just a little drunk at this point, but Frey looks so beautiful, and my friends are all here, and Emery hasn't started any fights, and Vishnal hasn't passed out from embarrassment, and everything is just so perfect and imperfect._

_"The most traumatizing thing I've ever experienced…it's funny, how this story telling thing got started. Vishnal told a funny story, and Dylas told a grumpy one, and Frey told a sad one, and Doug told an even more upsetting one, but what should I tell? What should I divulge about my sister and I's past to our new friends?" Willow sighed, "Well, one time I saw Emery cry. Even after witnessing the murder of our parents and being on the run for months, I never once saw her cry, and I remember thinking how strange it was of her to not. I had broken down numerous times at this point, but not Emery." Willow paused for a second,_

"_I've seen her cry…" I muttered, but she just shook her head._

"_This was different. Emery was my rock, when I broke down; she was there to comfort __**me**__. But one night, while we were floating over some villages in the northeast, I woke up and saw she wasn't in bed. Our airship has an enchantment spell on it that makes it steer itself, so I knew she wasn't at the wheel, but I went out on the deck anyways. The stars were twinkling so brightly, and the snow had started to fall, and there she was. Standing at the side of the ship, Emery was looking up, and when I approached her, I noticed a shiny, droplet fall down her face. It was surreal. She wasn't shaking, sobbing, screaming, or anything. Her face was calm, but her eyes were like the sea: stormy and overflowing. So I left. Without a word. We never talked about that night, but I think about it every now and then. About how scared I was. About how I couldn't bring myself to comfort her when she needed me most. Things like stick in your mind forever. 'Why didn't I say something? Why wasn't I strong enough to even hug her?' I asked myself. I don't know." Willow's story wasn't very traumatic, but it resonates in the soul, and leaves you feeling empty._

My head feels like it's going to explode, but I still managed to fix lunch for myself, and a little extra, knowing Emery would be hungry. She never seems to eat at Frey's house, and I don't know why. Well, I can only guess it's because Willow can't cook, Vishnal definitely can't cook, and Frey probably refuses to cook _for_ her. I checked the time and noticed it was almost one thirty, _Speaking of Emery, this past week she's shown up no later than noon. Maybe she's also hungover, but Frey would have woken her up by now. Maybe she got tired of coming over here. Good, I don't need any distractions for today. _ Walking down the stairs, I could already hear someone pacing back and forth at the bottom. _Maybe I spoke too soon._ I could see Emery's short figure pause at the base of the stairs, and I smiled slightly, but she just sighed heavily. Once I was at the bottom, she went over to the window, grabbed her stool, and dragged it over to the front counter, where I went behind to sit on my own stool.

We sat for awhile in silence, which is how most of the past week has gone. Emery comes over on her break, we sit in silence, and then she leaves. Every other day or so, she's given me very specific advice on how to confess to Frey, but generally she doesn't have much to say. Sometimes she complains about the farm work, but that's as far as our conversations go. Though, I can't tell if it's because she's still insisting on not making friends, or if it's because she really doesn't have anything to say.

"I think you should tell her tonight." Emery stated, out of the blue, staring at the wall intently. I choked on the rice I had just begun to eat,

"W-what?" I managed to get out, but Emery wasn't having any of that.

"You need to confess to her, and it's now or never." She persisted, her bluntness causing my face to flush slightly. _Confess to Frey? Tonight? No. No. I can't do that…_

"Willow said you don't know anything about relationships." I clasped my hand on the back of my neck nervously, while Emery rolled her eyes.

"My sister doesn't know anything. She knows how to make girls happy, but she doesn't know what it feels like to lose chances." She smirked, and I tipped my head back to stare at the ceiling. _Losing and missing chances are about the same thing. Wait._

"Your sister knows how to make girls happy?" I asked, changing the subject. Hopefully this will make Emery get off track, because I really don't want to deal with this right now. Not when I feel like absolute crap.

"Yes."

"Is that because she's a girl, or is she a lesbian like Vishnal though when they first met?" I frowned at her, mostly because I wasn't in the mood for her short responses, but also because I thought it was so strange that Vishnal though Willow preferred females. I actually laughed in his face when he told me the story; because it turned out she was just self-conscious.

"Yes." I nodded my head in understanding,

"Ah, I see…No! Wait! Which one?!" I leaped from my chair and Emery leaned back in surprise, and then annoyance.

"Does it matter? If you're so curious, you should just ask her, but if she punches you in the face, don't be surprised." Emery chuckled a bit, and I sat back down in my seat, "Have you thought of what you might say?" She asked me, and I shrugged my shoulders.

"Not really." I sighed, "I would probably just tell her straight forward. 'I love you' or 'I'm in love with you'". Emery pouted her lips slightly, and thought this over. Her mannerisms reminded me of Frey's, because they were actually very similar. Aside from obvious personality differences, both Frey and Emery acted and reacted in the same way. It's odd, but I've chosen not to say anything just yet. _But…Emery seems to have noticed it a bit. The way she watched Frey at dinner would tell anyone that, but then again, maybe it wouldn't. Emery didn't seem to like being around everyone._

"Have you practiced?" She asked, and I blushed in embarrassment,

"What the hell? What kind of guy do you take me for?" Emery smirked knowingly,

"Do you think you can do it? Or do you need extra practice?"

"What with you? No way! You don't look anything like Frey! How could I possibly practice with you? I don't even know you!" I snapped defensively, only making matters worse. Emery's lip curled evilly, snapped her fingers, and after a puff of smoke appeared, she had made herself look like a copy of Frey. Aside from her eyes, I wouldn't be able to tell them apart.

"What about now?" She laughed, poking me in the face, "You can practice now." My skin crawled in a very weird, uncomfortable way.

"Seeing you like that and hearing your voice is wrong on so many levels." I groaned, slapping my palm to my face. _Wait a second! Something is wrong here._ "If you can make yourself change appearances, why didn't you do that while you've been on the run?" I asked,

"Two reasons: first of all, it takes a great deal of magic to maintain the spell. Second, I can only make myself look like someone I know or duplicate an appearance. Meaning I'd be an exact copy, not a new unrecognizable person." Emery picked at her nails in a bored manner, still looking exactly like Frey. "Besides, I like the way I look."

"I don't like the way you look _now_." I muttered, and she started to smirk again,

"Oh, I bet you do." Emery sang, getting up in my face. _This is so freaking wrong. What the hell is wrong with her? _"C'mon. Tell me how you feel and I'll change back."

"No."

"I can stay like this all day."

"You said it takes a lot to keep up a different appearance!" I let out a frustrated sigh, and Emery just cackled.

"Yeah, but I can at least stay like this for a few months."

"A few months?! Are you kidding me?"

"Do you think an entire army would be after my sister and I if we weren't extremely powerful?" She asked rhetorically while I silently cursed under my breath. _Who is this girl anyways…? Her and her sister have been on the run, yet here she sits in front of me, acting like a __**child**__. _"So, just give it up already. Confess, so I know you can actually do it when the time comes. Also, make it interesting." Emery flipped on of her new pigtails over her shoulder casually, as if she'd always been able to do just that. Grumbling, I squared myself so I could face her, sitting across the front desk, looking exactly like the girl of my dreams. _If I ignore her eyes, I can just pretend she's Frey. That's what she's wanting anyways. Ugh, but why did she have to do this today? My heart feels like it's going to jump out of my chest. Why? It's just Emery. It's just Emery. It's just Emery. Frey is somewhere else…_

"I-I…" I started, but the cleared my voice, "Frey, I have something I need to tell you." I averted my eyes, feeling the heat rush to my face.

"Oh, what is it, Douggie?" Emery over exaggerated her voice to make it appear higher than normal, even though she already had a high pitched voice to begin with. I cringed at the awful pitch, but forced myself to continue. _Just do it. If you don't, she'll continue to mess with you._

"Well, you know, I've thought about it for some time now, and I've decided that I really like you, Frey." I said, and Emery shook her head, _Dammit…_ "I'm going to get you back for this, you know." I growled at her, and she just opened her eyes in faux confusion.

"What do you mean, Douggie? Get me back for what?" Frey- I mean, Emery, asked, still faking her voice. _ARhghghah! _

"Right, of course, I mean: _Oh dearest Frey, Princess of Selphia, I am in love with you!_" I rolled my eyes, disgusted with myself. _Nonononono, this is so sappy! DAMMIT! I am a man! A __**man**__! _Emery laughed some more, her voice returning to normal,

"Okay, now say it like you would normally."

"What was the point of _that_ then?" I asked, quickly becoming even more frustrated, but laughing because of how ridiculous this all was, and how stupid Emery is acting.

"You mean you're _not_ having fun?" Emery asked in mock surprise, and I laughed even more, causing her to smile. A real, genuine smile. A smile that you would see on someone who was actually _enjoying _themselves. _Jeez, what has gotten in to her today?_ I smirked back and leaned in, taking her hand,

"Frey, I like you a lot." I stared into her eyes for a few minutes, forgetting that Frey was Emery and not real life Frey. My face flushed bright red, and Emery busted out laughing, making it even worse. Wiping a tear from her eye, Emery shook my hand off hers.

"Well, that was an adventure." She smirked as she snapped her fingers once again and turned back into herself. _Thank the gods she's turned back to normal._ "Do you think you can do that tonight?" I shrugged my shoulders,

"I don't know." I furrowed my brow a bit and Emery sighed,

"Of course you can. Don't think about the consequences. Just think about Frey, and everything you like about her." Emery smiled encouragingly at me, and I smiled back, looking at the time. It's now about five o' clock in the afternoon, and the sun will be setting soon. Since it's spring, the days are slowly getting longer and longer, but lately it feels like they're getting faster and faster.

"Shouldn't you be getting back to work?" I asked her and she just kind of awkwardly laughed and tried to avoid the question.

"Ah, Frey said she can handle it." She said, but I knew better.

"Did you guys get done early?" I asked and she nodded her head, "Why are you still here then?" again, Emery tried to sheepishly avoid the question, but I wouldn't let her. Now the roles were reversed, and I was forcing her to do something and she was the one resisting.

"She's having a 'girls' night out'…" Emery sighed,

"Did she not invite you?" I asked, not being able to believe Frey would intentionally leave her out.

"N-no, she invited me…but I declined." Emery began to tug at the edges of her sweater. The same type of sweater she was wearing when we first met: teal, thin, and overly large for her petite frame. It almost covered her skirt, but not quite.

"Why?" I scoffed, witnessing the previously confident and cool Emery turn back into her old shy self.

"I'm not really good with people." She laughed nervously, and I shook my head,

"You're fine with me."

"Oh, it seems as if I am." Once again, Emery was speaking vaguely. _Don't tell me she's going to start up with the "I'm not here to make friends" crap again. I swear, she's one of the most stubborn people I've ever met. Next to Frey of course. That's another thing these two have in common: their stubbornness. Though, I thought I was really making some progress here, because we were having such a nice time. Emery is really goofy, now that we're just hanging around. It's different from how she was a few days ago, though, and I wonder what caused this sudden change. Was it last night? Did something happen last night that I was oblivious to? I'm oblivious to a lot of things, so it wouldn't surprise me, but nothing too strange happened. Dylas was his usual sullen self, Frey was perfect, as always, Vishnal tried to help, but made things worse, Willow seemed to complement Vishnal nicely in the helping department, but what was Emery doing during all of this? She made a few comments about the music…and baked…did she tell any stories when we were all in the circle? I don't remember. Dammit! I can't remember. Does she really not want to make friends, or is she just too shy to make friends? Or is it something else?_ "I can see that you're thinking really hard about something. You haven't spoken for a few minutes, but I'm going to tell you something. I'm not good with feelings, and I'm not good with people. Usually it's a hit or miss scenario, but most of the time I rather not get involved anyways. Having friends only complicates things." I could hear a hit of something in her voice, but was unable to pin it down. _Why do girls have to be so damn complicated?_

"I think you're just shy, and that's why you put up this 'tough girl' act." I teased, and her cheeks turned a light shade of pink.

"That's not true!" Emery snapped, a little too defensively,

"Okay, if that's not true then, let's make a deal." I smirked. Emery hesitantly leaned in to hear what I had to say, "I will confess to Frey sometime tonight, but only if you try and make some friends at this girls'-night-out-or-whatever." After what seemed to be forever, Emery finally nodded her head in agreement. I still don't know how I'm going to pull this off, but hopefully everything will work out in the end.

* * *

After stumbling through the woods for a week and a half, dehydrated, exhausted, and half-dead, the Captain found himself breaking into a house near the small town of Selphia. He ransacked the place, opening cabinets, eating and drinking whatever foods and liquids he could find in the dingy, old house. There was an abundance of clothing strewn across the place, and a sewing machine in one corner. The Captain decided it must belong to the local tailor, and then he noticed the particular works the person was currently working on. They were simple tunics, but the type of clothing wasn't what interested him. It was the colors: teal and purple. The same colors the two sisters he was hunting were famous for wearing. _Interesting, _the Captain though, picking them up to inspect them. _They must be close by, and needed clothes to fit in. So, you've managed to trick another family into thinking you're good hearted citizens? Well, that's too bad._

He didn't stay much longer, for the Captain needed to make his way back to the Sechs Empire, to report the location of the girls. Back to the only place he could turn to after the death of his sister. One way or another, he was going to get revenge for what they've done to him and his family.

* * *

**Thank you for taking the time to read! I hope everything is still making sense, as you can see, I got a little lazy in the middle of this story and broke up the dinner party into two sections. The one is in present time, and then, because they got a little tipsy, the rest was in the past! Woooo. Also, there is a lot more dialogue in this chapter. I hope that's okay, and I hope no one got confused/frustrated from my weird sense of humor. If it was even humorous at all...I dunno, I thought it would be funny to make Emery pretend to be Frey in order to get a rise out of Doug. Then again, it's really late in the evening over here, so anything is funny to me at this point. Sorry I am so awful at filler chapters and building relationships. This is actually my first real chapter fanfic, so it's hard to gauge how fast everything should go. I do have a clear plot and ending, though, so I know where I want the story to end up. The problem is getting there...Oh well. I'm planning on this being a long term project, so hopefully I'll get a little better at this as I go.**

**Please review, and thanks again!~**


End file.
